Illinois · Private foundation
Make It Better Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $988k
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 73
- Grants FY2024
- 11
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 55%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $5,125
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $125,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 3 to 45
- FY2020 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 13
- Total assets, FY2024
- $81k
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 55% of the organizations Make It Better Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 57% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 43% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $145k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024still arriving | 62 | $963k | 82% |
| FY2023 | 11 | $255k | 55% |
| FY2022 | 45 | $450k | 98% |
| FY2020 | 3 | $21k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches | $131,181 | 1 | 0% |
| Nurse-Family Partnership | $100,000 | 1 | 0% |
| A Safe Haven Foundation | $50,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association Inc | $45,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Chicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-Chicago | $45,000 | 3 | 1% |
| Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois Inc | $45,000 | 2 | 0% |
| The Joffrey Ballet | $36,000 | 3 | 0% |
| Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance | $35,000 | 2 | 1% |
| American Near East Refugee Aid | $30,163 | 1 | 0% |
| City Year Inc | $30,000 | 2 | 0% |
Show all 68 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 36 recipients with no EIN on record ($511k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Make It Better Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 68 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · AbbVie Foundation · The Coleman Foundation Inc · Imc Chicago Charitable Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Siragusa Family Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Make It Better Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Make It Better 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.
About Make It Better Foundation
- How much does Make It Better Foundation give?
- Make It Better Foundation reported 73 grants totaling $988,150 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 45 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
- What does Make It Better Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Health (24%), Arts & Culture (20%), Public Safety & Disaster (13%).
- Who are Make It Better Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ($131k), Nurse-Family Partnership ($100k), A Safe Haven Foundation ($50k).
- Does Make It Better Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 55% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Make It Better Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Make It Better Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, Circle of Service Foundation.
- Where is Make It Better Foundation based?
- Make It Better Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Make It Better’s filings →