Skip to content
Plinth

· Public charity

Lavin Family Supporting Foundation

The Foundation is organized and operated to foster, support, develop, and maintain charitable activities and vital human and educational services by supporting and carrying out the charitable purposes of The Chicago Community Trust by such means as the board of directors of the organization may determine from time to time.

$18M
Granted FY2022
1
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$18M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182022.

Philanthropy$22MEducation$1.1MFood & Nutrition$270kPublic Safety & Disaster$50kYouth Development$50kHousing & Shelter$35kReligion$30kArts & Culture$25kOther$0
02FY2022 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$18,224,225
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Chicago Community Foundation$18,224,225
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%DuPage PADS: $10k → 7%Field Museum of Natural History: $25k → 14%CAST Water Safety Foundation: $100k → 14%Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago Inc: $50k → 14%The Chicago Community Foundation: $18.2M → 14%Northwestern Memorial Foundation: $1.3M → 14%Housing Forward: $25k → 14%Lakeview Pantry: $20k → 14%The Thresholds: $20k → 14%The Big Shoulder Fund: $1.0M → 14%The Big Shoulders Fund: $100k → 14%Mission of Our Lady of Mercy: $30k → 14%Breakthrough Urban Ministries Inc: $15k → 14%Enchanted Backpack: $1.0M → 14%Enchanted Backpack: $300k → 14%Jewish Federation of Metro Chicago: $150k → 14%Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago: $150k → 14%Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago: $150k → 14%United Way of Metropolitan Chicago: $50k → 14%The Chicago Community Foundation: $304k → 14%The Chicago Community Trust: $30k → 14%The Chicago Community Trust: $10k → 14%Greater Chicago Food Depository: $250k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$21M · 4 repeat orgs$1.8M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +67% since the first grant, against +46% for the ones you funded once.

4 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2022, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
12

Total granted

$21M
$1.8M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+67%
+46%

Still filing today

75%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22
PhilanthropyHousing & ShelterEducationFood & NutritionYouth DevelopmentArts & CultureOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • EB
    ENCHANTED BACKPACK
    2× · 2020–2021 · $1.3M · revenue +218% · 47% of their budget
  • BS
    Big Shoulders Fund
    2× · 2020–2021 · $1.1M · revenue +67%
  • JU
    JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
    2× · 2019–2020 · $300k · revenue +57%

Funded once

  • NM
    NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE
    one grant, 2018 · $1.3M
  • GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY
    one grant, 2020 · $250k · revenue +17%
  • CW
    CAST WATER SAFETY FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue +37%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
2
The Chicago Innovation Foundation
Philanthropy
3
Northern Illinois University Foundation

The niu foundation's mission is to energize and connect the private sector with the niu community to secure and steward resources that support the future and growth of niu.

Education
4
The Richard H Driehaus Foundation
Philanthropy
5
University of Chicago Medical Center

Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…

Health
6
Chicago House & Social Service Agency

Provides housing and support services to individuals and families impacted by hiv/aids

Health
7
Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance

Cafha provides training and technical assistance to a wide array of stakeholders combating housing discrimination and promoting equitable place-based opportunity through education, advocacy, and collaborative action.

8
Chicago's Environmental Fund
9
Ywca Metropolitan Chicago

The ywca is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

Human Services
10
Urban Triage Incorporated

Urban triage transforms culture, institutions, and communities to ensure a humane future.

Philanthropy
11
Chicago Toy & Game Foundation
12
United Way of Illinois

Strengthen United Way movement in Illinois

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Breakthrough Urban Ministries Inc and the most unlike its peers is Enchanted Backpack. 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

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

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 15 of the 18 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
14/15
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $18,528,225 · OtherCHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE — $1,250,000 · OtherNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE+4 more — $85,000 · OtherENCHANTED BACKPACK — $1,300,000 · PhilanthropyENCHANTED…JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $300,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UN…JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $150,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH FE…CAST WATER SAFETY FOUNDATION — $100,000 · Philanthropy+2 more — $90,000 · PhilanthropyBig Shoulders Fund — $1,100,000 · EducationGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $250,000 · Food & NutritionBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO — $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentHOUSING FORWARD — $25,000 · Housing & ShelterDUPAGE PADS INC — $10,000 · Housing & ShelterFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $25,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$19,863,225Philanthropy$1,940,000Education$1,100,000Food & Nutrition$250,000Youth Development$50,000Housing & Shelter$35,000Arts & Culture$25,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetENCHANTED BACKPACK — $1,300,000 over 2y, 47% of budgetBig Shoulders Fund — $1,100,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $300,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $250,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCAST WATER SAFETY FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Chicago Community Trust — $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHOUSING FORWARD — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE THRESHOLDS — $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNOURISHING HOPE — $20,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH URBAN MINISTRIES INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDUPAGE PADS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Chicago Community TrustIL12.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Lavin Family Supporting Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Lavin Family Supporting Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Lavin Family Supporting Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 18 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph