How much does Mazza Foundation give?

Mazza Foundation reported 36 grants totaling $2,187,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 34 and 42 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Mazza Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (40%), Health (21%), Human Services (16%).

Who are Mazza Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Big Shoulders Fund ($1.7M), Depaul University ($1.3M), Misericordia Foundation ($1.2M).

Does Mazza Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Mazza Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Mazza Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, Helen V Brach Foundation, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc.

Where is Mazza Foundation based?

Mazza Foundation is based in IL.

Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

Mazza Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.2M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 36
Grants FY2025: 35
Organizations funded FY2024: 20%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $15,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $300,000
Organizations funded a year: 34 to 42; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 2
Total assets, FY2025: $34M
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations Mazza Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 31% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $655k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationAnimalsReligionFood & NutritionOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	36	$2.2M	11%
FY2024	35	$2.1M	20%
FY2023	36	$1.8M	17%
FY2022	42	$2.0M	38%
FY2021	34	$1.7M	24%
FY2020	42	$1.9M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$4.6MHealth$2.5MHuman Services$1.8MArts & Culture$1.0MReligion$530kPhilanthropy$500kScience & Tech$170kHousing & Shelter$155kOther$0

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
Big Shoulders Fund	$1,700,000	6	1%
Depaul University	$1,250,000	6	0%
Misericordia Foundation	$1,200,000	4	2%
Lyric Opera of Chicago	$300,000	3	0%
Lumen Christi Institute	$265,000	6	3%
Loyola University of Chicago	$250,000	2	0%
Red Cloud Indian School	$225,000	3	n/a
Grant Park Orchestral Association	$190,000	6	1%
Little Sisters of the Poor Chicago St Mary's Home	$150,000	2	1%
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry	$150,000	6	0%

Show all 47 grantees

All grantees of Mazza Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Big Shoulders Fund	$1,700,000	6	1%
Depaul University	$1,250,000	6	0%
Misericordia Foundation	$1,200,000	4	2%
Lyric Opera of Chicago	$300,000	3	0%
Lumen Christi Institute	$265,000	6	3%
Loyola University of Chicago	$250,000	2	0%
Red Cloud Indian School	$225,000	3	n/a
Grant Park Orchestral Association	$190,000	6	1%
Little Sisters of the Poor Chicago St Mary's Home	$150,000	2	1%
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry	$150,000	6	0%
Lincoln Park Zoological Society	$140,000	5	0%
Chicago Shakespeare Theater	$125,000	5	0%
Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly	$125,000	6	1%
The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired	$80,000	6	0%
Loyola Press	$70,000	1	0%
Cristo Rey St Martin College Prep	$65,000	5	0%
Ravinia Festival Association	$60,000	6	0%
Catholic Church Extension Society of US of Amer	$55,000	5	n/a
Gilda's Club Chicago	$50,000	5	1%
Northwestern University Settlement Association	$50,000	2	0%
Inspiration Corporation	$50,000	4	1%
Allendale Association	$38,000	3	0%
Highsight	$35,000	5	1%
The Chicago Academy of Sciences	$35,000	3	0%
Mother McAuley High School	$30,000	3	n/a
Gregorian University Foundation Inc	$30,000	2	n/a
St Leonard's Ministries	$30,000	3	0%
Horizons for Youth	$30,000	3	1%
The Joffrey Ballet	$25,000	5	0%
Greater Chicago Food Depository	$25,000	3	0%
Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House	$20,000	2	0%
Chicago Horticultural Society	$20,000	2	0%
Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired	$20,000	3	0%
The Night Ministry	$20,000	4	0%
Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly Inc	$20,000	4	0%
The Chicago Help Initiative	$15,000	2	3%
Ignatian Spirituality Project	$15,000	3	n/a
National Museum of Mexican Art Fka Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum	$15,000	3	0%
The Illinois Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums	$12,500	2	8%
Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School	$10,000	1	n/a
St Joseph the Protector Fdn Inc	$10,000	1	0%
Hope Ignites Chicago	$10,000	1	0%
Uniting Voices	$10,000	2	0%
St Rita of Cascia High School Corporation	$10,000	1	n/a
Math Circles of Chicago	$5,000	1	0%
Marillac St Vincent Family Services Inc	$5,000	1	0%
West Town Bikes Nfp	$5,000	1	1%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 36 recipients with no EIN on record ($4.7M), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Mazza Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 40.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Chicago Community TrustIL32.5× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Helen V Brach Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · WP & HB White Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · The Service Club of Chicago · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Seabury Foundation · George M Eisenberg Foundation for Charities · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Mazza Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Mazza Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Mazza 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 Mazza Foundation

How much does Mazza Foundation give?: Mazza Foundation reported 36 grants totaling $2,187,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 34 and 42 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Mazza Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (40%), Health (21%), Human Services (16%).
Who are Mazza Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Big Shoulders Fund ($1.7M), Depaul University ($1.3M), Misericordia Foundation ($1.2M).
Does Mazza Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Mazza Foundation accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Mazza Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, Helen V Brach Foundation, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc.
Where is Mazza Foundation based?: Mazza Foundation is based in IL.