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· Public charity

Lake County Bar Foundation

The foundation was established in 1960 to promote the education of lawyers and advance the science of jurisprudence.

$266k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Education$115kCommunity Improvement$100kCrime & Legal$83kHealth$14kPhilanthropy$10kArts & Culture$10kHuman Services$10k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $260,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $266,000 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $6,000 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY$100,000
NIU FOUNDATION$100,000
NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC$20,000
DRINKWATER FAMILY SERVICES$10,000
CASA LAKE COUNTY$10,000
COALITION LEGAL$10,000
PRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%DRINKWATER FAMILY SERVICES: $10k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Court Appointed Special Advocates of Cook County

CASA of Cook County's vision is to protect abused and neglected children by providing them in court, a safe and permanent home, and an opportunity to grow, learn and thrive.

Crime & Legal
2
Illinois Legal Aid Online

Illinois legal aid online (ilao) opens opportunities for justice by educating illinoisans about their rights and connecting them to lawyers, solutions, and each other, especially people for whom the legal system was not designed. through…

Crime & Legal
3
Chicago Advocate Legal Nfp

Legal services and legal education

Human Services
4
Greater Chicago Legal Clinic

The organization provides community based legal services and education to the under-served and disadvantaged in Chicago metropolitan areas.

Crime & Legal
5
Elder Law and Wellness Initiative Nfp

Elder Law & Wellness Initiative (ELWI) is committed to increasing our senior citizens' access to and understanding of our legal and social support system. ELWI's objective is to work with seniors and their caregivers to nurture and promote…

—
6
Public Interest Law Initiative

PILI engages, inspires and empowers those advancing equal access to justice.

Crime & Legal
7
Illinois Coalition for Legal Reform

Advocate for tort reform in Illinois by communicating with public officials and staff to influence legislation and administrative action designed to create a more equitable and balanced judicial system in Illinois.

Community Improvement
8
United Way of Illinois

Strengthen United Way movement in Illinois

Philanthropy
9
First Defense Legal Aid

First Defense Legal Aid mobilizes lawyers and community members to fill gaps in public defense and create, protect, and engage replicable alternatives to the criminal system, starting with its entry points.

Crime & Legal
10
Legal Aid Chicago

At legal aid chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental…

Crime & Legal
11
Chicago Law and Education Foundation

Using public schools and libraries as community centers, the Chicago Law and Education Foundation provides free legal services and education to low-income communities in Chicago.

Crime & Legal
12
Chicago Community Justice Foundation
Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic; the most unlike its peers is Northern Illinois University Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

12 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/12
Grantees still filing
4/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $100,000 · EducationNORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $100,000 · EducationDEPAUL UNIVERSITYWaukegan To College NFP: $15,000 · EducationWaukegan To College NFPNORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC: $43,000 · Crime & LegalNORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL…PRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES INC: $10,000 · Crime & LegalPRAIRIE STATE LEGAL …COALITION LEGAL: $10,000 · Crime & LegalCOALITION LEGALLAKE COUNTY CRISIS CENTER: $10,000 · OtherTHE WAUKEGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $10,000 · OtherART IMPACT PROJECT NOT FOR PROFIT: $14,000 · Youth DevelopmentDRINKWATER FAMILY SERVICES INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesHighland Park Community Foundation: $10,000 · PhilanthropyCASA LAKE COUNTY INC: $10,000 · Civil Rights
Education$215,000Crime & Legal$63,000Other$20,000Youth Development$14,000Human Services$10,000Philanthropy$10,000Civil Rights$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC: $43,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetART IMPACT PROJECT NOT FOR PROFIT: $14,000 over 2y, 7.7% of budgetLAKE COUNTY CRISIS CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOALITION LEGAL: $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetHighland Park Community Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCASA LAKE COUNTY INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE WAUKEGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Lake County Community FoundationIL15.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Lake County Community Foundation · John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber Philanthropy · First Bank Chicago Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Lake County Bar Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lake County Bar Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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