· Private foundation
Mary Lou Downs 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k30 grants · $140k
- $10k–50k12 grants · $160k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SHRINER'S HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN | $14,000 |
| LARABIDA CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL | $14,000 |
| LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR OF PALATINE | $14,000 |
| WINGS PROGRAM INC | $14,000 |
| HEPHZIBAH CHILDREN'S ASSN | $14,000 |
| MISERICORDIA HEART OF MERCY | $14,000 |
| TUNNELS TO TOWERS FOUNDATION | $14,000 |
| ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL | $14,000 |
| THE CENTER OF CONCERN | $13,000 |
| SHELTER INC | $13,000 |
| ANN & ROBERT LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL | $12,000 |
| HOUSE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD | $10,000 |
| LIFE SPAN | $8,000 |
| PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA | $7,000 |
| MARYVILLE ACADEMY | $7,000 |
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 (FY20–25, $236k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
46 repeat relationships: 42 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC6× · 2020–2025 · $69k · revenue +78%- WPWINGS PROGRAM INC6× · 2020–2025 · $69k · revenue +122%
- LLIFE-SPAN6× · 2020–2025 · $63k · revenue +46%
Funded once
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.
Chh honors every person's right to a home and health care, by bridging the housing and health care systems, to improve the lives of chicagoans experiencing homelessness.
See schedule oadvancing physical and emotional safety by reducing the impact and occurrence of sexual and domestic violence, human trafficking and stalking through inclusive intervention and prevention services for children, youth, and…
Infant welfare society of chicago (iws) (d/b/a iws family health) provides quality medical, dental and behavioral health services for the health, physical and mental development of children and their families in the chicagoland community.
Child Link provides foster care, family counseling, and therapy services to Chicago area adolescents who are at risk of homelessness. Child Link also refers adolescents to other agencies that are able to provide additional resources and…
The little sisters of the poor operate st. mary's home, which provides nursing and residential care for the needy elderly. the home is part of the international congregation of the little sisters of the poor, which was founded in france in…
To create a better world by serving people in need by operating food pantries, homeless shelters, a domestic violence shelter, affordable housing communities, senior living, assisted living and skilled care facilities, a home health care…
Heartland alliance health's mission is to transform healthcare for the most vulnerable, particularly people experiencing homelessness, mental illness or addictions, or struggling with multiple chronic illnesses, improving health for all…
The chicago children's advocacy center unites public, private, and community partners to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of abused children.
Believing in the value of every life, mary's path empowers vulnerable teen mothers in foster care and their babies to create lives of dignity, hope and self-sufficiency.
To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.
Care to terminal patients/families
MISSION - ST. JUDE HOUSE, Inc. (St. Jude House) IS a family violence prevention center and shelter; our mission is TO CELEBRATE LIFE AND SERVE WITH JOY. Vision - St. Jude House is a catalyst in Northwest Indiana for the prevention,…
How this is measured
34 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. 34 of the 46 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 ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds WINGS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds LIFE-SPAN ↗
- Who funds THE CENTER OF CONCERN ↗
- Who funds SHELTER INC ↗
- Who funds HEPHZIBAH CHILDREN'S ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds La Rabida Children's Hospital ↗
- Who funds House of the Good Shepherd ↗
- Who funds Maryville Academy ↗
- Who funds PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust ↗
- Who funds The Anti-Cruelty Society ↗
- Who funds UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS OF ILLINOIS INC ↗
- Who funds WEST SUBURBAN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS INC ↗
- Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE NIGHT MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds Turning Point Inc ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds CHILD'S VOICE SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds PADS TO HOPE DBA-JOURNEYS THE ROAD HOME ↗
- Who funds PADS Lake County Inc ↗
- Who funds GATEWAY TO LEARNING ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds CONNECTIONS FOR ABUSED WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds FRANCISCAN OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds ARDEN SHORE CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES ↗
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: United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · AbbVie Foundation · George M Eisenberg Foundation for Charities · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The a Montgomery Ward Foundation · Helen V Brach Foundation · The Allstate Foundation · Cuore e Mani Foundation · Blowitz-Ridgeway Foundation · Andrew and Alice Fischer Charitable Trust · Trustmark Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Mary Lou Downs Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mary Lou Downs Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Mary Lou Downs’ filings →