· Private foundation
M G Nelson Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k22 grants · $77k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $30k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $486k
- $250k+1 grant · $380k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION | $380,000 |
| NAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN | $125,000 |
| KIDZEUM OF HEALTH & SCIENCE | $100,000 |
| COMPASS FOR KIDS | $100,000 |
| MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION | $60,500 |
| ARTIS NAPLES | $50,000 |
| NCH CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY | $50,000 |
| HOLE IN THE WALL WILDLIFE FUND | $20,000 |
| CAPITOL ILLINI ANGEL FUND | $10,000 |
| SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT 186 | $8,100 |
| CONTACT MINISTRIES | $6,000 |
| OPERATION HEALING FORCES | $5,000 |
| SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES | $5,000 |
| THE REES CARILLON SOCIETY | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $213k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 26% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 13% of M G Nelson Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 80% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 71%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
41 repeat relationships: 22 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $35k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
University of Illinois Foundation3× · 2023–2025 · $580k · revenue +37%- CFCompass for Kids Inc4× · 2022–2025 · $490k · revenue +120%
- NBNAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC8× · 2018–2025 · $428k · revenue +79%
Funded once
- NCNorthwest Community Hospitalone grant, 2020 · $108k · revenue +20%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $100k
- YMYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF SPRINGFIELDone grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue -52%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Dedicated to advancing the art of ballet through premier education, performance, outreach and collaberation.
Foundry educational foundation strenghtens the metal casting industry by supporting unique partnerships among students, educators, and industry, helping today's students become tomorrow's leaders.
The mission of springfield college is to educate students in spirit, mind and body for leadership in service to others by building on a foundation of the college's humanics philosophy, academic excellence, service, and student success.…
Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.
To foster and encourage private philanthropic giving to improve communities of the Southern Illinois Region by connecting charitable donors with worthy causes and to build endowment funds that will support those worthy causes in perpetuity.
Volunteers of america of illinois partners with the people we serve to create transformational and lasting change in their lives through programs that support, empower, and transform.
To provide resources, advocacy and education for a diverse community of professionals and is dedicated to the highest standards of service in a changing real estate market.
To ensure a strong, talented, and diverse cpa profession in illinois by encouraging individuals to choose accounting as a career choice and become a cpa, and by supporting students, particularly those in need, in achieving the cpa.
(continued on schedule o)
The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.
To enhance the quality of the chicago metropolitan area's future leaders in whom the community will vest responsibility for its well being.
How this is measured
48 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. 48 of the 91 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
- Who funds Compass for Kids Inc ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC ↗
- Who funds ARTIS-NAPLES INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR THE LAND OF LINCOLN INC ↗
- Who funds Guadalupe Center Inc ↗
- Who funds Springfield Art Association of Edwards Place ↗
- Who funds Northwest Community Hospital ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF SPRINGFIELD ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS ↗
- Who funds MARINDA T OBEIRNE CRISIS NURSERY ↗
- Who funds BAY EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds COPPER COIN BALLET COMPANY ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Illinois ↗
- Who funds GAMMA THETA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds EDUCATIONAL CENTER FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED ↗
- Who funds THE PARENT PLACE ↗
- Who funds The League Club Inc ↗
- Who funds FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES ↗
- Who funds SANGAMON VALLEY YOUTH SYMPHONY ↗
- Who funds CONTACT MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR LEAGUE OF SPRINGFIELD INC ↗
- Who funds SEACREST SCHOOL INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Levi Ray & Shoup Foundation · Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln Inc · Green Family Charitable Foundation · The Cellini Family Fund Trust Co William F Cellini Jr · United Way of Central Illinois Inc · Horace Mann Educators Foundation · Aa Harvey Foundation · James Orlandini Foundation · Collier Community Foundation Inc · Carmax Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Charities Aid Foundation America
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization M G Nelson Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from M G Nelson Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Naples Botanical Garden Inc: 3% of income from government
- Bay Education Foundation Inc: 0% of income from government
- Guadalupe Center Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
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