Illinois · Private foundation
Matthew Zell Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $1.7M
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 22
- Grants FY2024
- 17
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 12%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $10,000
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $500,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 1 to 17
- FY2019 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 9
- Total assets, FY2024
- $50M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 12% of the organizations Matthew Zell Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 3% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k 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 | 21 | $1.2M | 19% |
| FY2023 | 17 | $1.9M | 12% |
| FY2022 | 15 | $393k | 40% |
| FY2021 | 12 | $250k | 33% |
| FY2020 | 9 | $257k | 89% |
| FY2019 | 1 | $10k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 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, FY2019 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Savanna Institute | $1,758,022 | 3 | 8% |
| Camp Ramah in Wisconsin Inc | $654,000 | 6 | n/a |
| Imagine H2O Inc | $575,000 | 4 | 25% |
| Powell Gardens Inc | $250,000 | 1 | 5% |
| Blue Forest Finance Inc | $100,000 | 2 | 1% |
| National Kidney Foundation of Illinois | $100,000 | 4 | 2% |
| Rochelle Zell Jewish High School | $63,671 | 5 | 0% |
| National Ramah Commission Inc | $60,000 | 1 | 0% |
| Medicine Fish Corp | $50,000 | 1 | 10% |
| The Aspen Institute Inc | $50,000 | 1 | 0% |
Show all 23 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 2 recipients with no EIN on record ($63k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Matthew Zell Family Foundation supplied at peak.
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: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Charles and M R Shapiro Foundation Inc · Hochberg Family Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · AbbVie Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Matthew Zell Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Matthew Zell Family 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 Matthew Zell Family Foundation
- How much does Matthew Zell Family Foundation give?
- Matthew Zell Family Foundation reported 22 grants totaling $1,700,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 17 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2023.
- What does Matthew Zell Family Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (74%), Recreation & Sports (14%), Education (3%).
- Who are Matthew Zell Family Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2019 to FY2024: Savanna Institute ($1.8M), Camp Ramah in Wisconsin Inc ($654k), Imagine H2O Inc ($575k).
- Does Matthew Zell Family Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 12% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Matthew Zell Family 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 Matthew Zell Family Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Charles and M R Shapiro Foundation Inc, Hochberg Family Foundation.
- Where is Matthew Zell Family Foundation based?
- Matthew Zell Family Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Matthew Zell Family’s filings →