Illinois · Private foundation
Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $581k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 90
- Grants FY2025
- 74
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 26%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $4,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $45,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 59 to 78
- FY2020 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 24
- Total assets, FY2025
- $7.0M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 26% of the organizations Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 17% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $85k 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 88 | $566k | 25% |
| FY2024 | 74 | $503k | 26% |
| FY2023 | 67 | $421k | 12% |
| FY2022 | 78 | $548k | 38% |
| FY2021 | 60 | $407k | 33% |
| FY2020 | 59 | $335k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
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 FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc | $192,000 | 5 | 0% |
| Depaul University | $130,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Natural Resources Defense Council Inc | $126,750 | 6 | 0% |
| Wilderness Watch Inc | $119,000 | 6 | 4% |
| Northwoods Alliance Incorporated | $105,000 | 6 | 20% |
| William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc | $90,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Planned Parenthood of Illinois | $85,000 | 2 | 0% |
| National Park Foundation | $79,500 | 6 | 0% |
| St Norbert College Inc | $62,500 | 4 | 0% |
| American River Conservancy | $55,500 | 6 | 1% |
Show all 117 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 41 recipients with no EIN on record ($762k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 104 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: Raikes Foundation · Seattle Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Tides Foundation · The Russell Family Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · AbbVie Foundation
How this is measured
Compare Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation with peer funders
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable 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 Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation
- How much does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation give?
- Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation reported 90 grants totaling $581,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 59 and 78 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
- What does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (35%), Education (14%), Civil Rights (12%).
- Who are Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc ($192k), Depaul University ($130k), Natural Resources Defense Council Inc ($127k).
- Does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 26% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Raikes Foundation, Seattle Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust.
- Where is Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation based?
- Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Mary and Charles Sethness’ filings →