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Mc Dermott Will and Emery Charitable Foundation

To support the efforts and projects of other charitable organizations through distributions of donations and grants

$1.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
55
Grants FY2024still arriving
12
States reached
$108k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.

Crime & Legal$2.1MEducation$883kCivil Rights$558kCommunity Improvement$300kHealth$298kHuman Services$87kInternational$85kReligion$43kOther$0
02FY2024 · 55 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 55 grants below total $1,164,750 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,396,556 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $231,806 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k14 grants · $98k
  • $10k–50k35 grants · $556k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $511k
$12,000
Median grant
12
States reached
$592k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Equal Justice Works$108,000
Ownership Works$100,000
NIJC$92,500
Chicago Bar Foundation$80,000
Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund Inc$70,000
Legal Aid Chicago$60,000
Lawyers for the Creative Arts$32,500
Human Rights First$32,000
Immigration Equality$27,500
American Health Law Association$25,000
Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta$25,000
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights$25,000
DKMS$25,000
Legal Services of Greater Miami$21,250
Tahirih Justice Center$20,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY22–24, $55k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 54% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%American National Red Cross: $15k → 10%American Institute for Sluttering: $10k → 17%American National Red Cross: $10k → 10%Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc: $12k → 14%Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc: $8k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
NJ
CT
CA
VA
MD
DE
TN
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.8M · 37 repeat orgs$1.6M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +25% since the first grant, against +22% for the ones you funded once.

37 repeat relationships — 31 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 23 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

37
29

Total granted

$2.8M
$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%
+22%

Still filing today

100%
97%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $360k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Crime & LegalHealthEducationInternationalCivil RightsHuman ServicesOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • TC
    THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2024 · $254k · revenue +467%
  • LA
    LEGAL AID CHICAGO
    5× · 2020–2024 · $245k · revenue +92%
  • OW
    OWNERSHIP WORKS INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $200k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • GS
    GREENHILL SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $800k · revenue +37%
  • CF
    COUNCIL FOR INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue -35%
  • HI
    HIAS INC
    one grant, 2022 · $45k · revenue -6%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Colorado Legal Services

To provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for as many low income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout colorado as possible.

Crime & Legal
2
Twin Cities Diversity in Practice

To attract, recruit, advance, and retain attorneys of color in the twin cities through education and collaboration with member organizations.

Community Improvement
3
Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association Inc

The mission of the volunteer lawyers project of the boston bar association is to increase access to justice by delivering high quality pro bono civil legal services to eligible clients in the greater boston area.

Crime & Legal
4
Council for Court Excellence

Council for court excellence's (cce's) mission is to bring people together to conduct research, educate, and advocate to make d.c.'s unique legal systems more just, equitable, and accountable to the community.

—
5
Association of Legal Administrators

Ala is the catalyst for growth by providing: diverse educational experiences, engaged peer communities, strategic solutions, dynamic resources, and trusted networks.

—
6
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—
7
Legal Aid of Western Ohio Inc

Legal aid of western ohio, inc. (lawo) is a non-profit law firm that champions equity and justice through client-centered community collaboration and transformative legal advocacy.

Crime & Legal
8
Lawyers for Civil Justice

The purposes for which the corporation is organized are to provide a means for defense trial lawyers and others to be heard, state a position and motivate reform of the United States civil justice system. See Schedule O

—
9
Advocates for Basic Legal Equality Inc

Advocates for basic legal equality, inc. (able) is a non-profit law firm that provides high quality legal assistance in civil matters to help eligible low-income individuals and groups in western ohio achieve self-reliance, and equal…

—
10
Afl-Cio Union Lawyers Alliance

Afl-cio union lawyers alliance was established to better the conditions of working men and women and their families by enhancing the quality of legal representation that is available to the afl-cio and the national and international unions…

—
11
The Public Interest Law Center

The Public Interest Law Center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. We use litigation, community…

Crime & Legal
12
Legal Aid Justice Center

The legal aid justice center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.

Crime & Legal

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Her Justice Inc and the most unlike its peers is Mattachine Society of Washington Dc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyPolicy Research and AdvocacyChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Immigrant Worker SupportCancer Support ServicesSenior Support ServicesDomestic Violence ServicesOrchestra and Ensemble Perf…Lgbtq+ Community SupportChristian Missionary Organi…Community Foundations
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%1%<5yr14%2%5–10yr19%12%10–20yr16%30%20–35yr13%33%35–55yr16%22%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%2%<5yr14%5%5–10yr19%5%10–20yr16%19%20–35yr13%37%35–55yr16%32%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/93
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,472

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

92 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 92 of the 93 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
92/92
Grantees still filing
59/92
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS — $480,235 · Crime & LegalEQUAL JUSTICE WORKSLEGAL AID CHICAGO — $245,000 · Crime & LegalLEGAL AID CHICAGOChicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc — $102,500 · Crime & LegalChicago Lawyers Committee for Civil…NIJC NFP — $92,500 · Crime & LegalNIJC NFPCHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC — $80,000 · Crime & LegalCHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INCLAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC — $75,000 · Crime & LegalLegal Services of Greater Miami Inc — $61,250 · Crime & Legal+16 more — $284,350 · Crime & Legal+16 moreGREENHILL SCHOOL — $800,000 · EducationGREENHILL SCHOOLTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION — $254,400 · EducationTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION+4 more — $78,000 · Education+4 moreEQUIP FOR EQUALITY — $87,500 · OtherEQUIP FOR EQUALITYBET TZEDEK — $65,000 · OtherBET TZEDEKASCEND JUSTICE — $65,000 · OtherASCEND JUSTICEAMERICAN HEALTH LAW ASSOCIATION — $50,000 · OtherAMERICAN HEALTH LAW AS…GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $41,500 · OtherLawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law — $30,000 · OtherWASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND URBAN AFFAIRS INC — $52,500 · OtherWASHINGTON LAWYERS' CO…LAWYERS FOR CHILDREN AMERICA INC — $41,250 · OtherLAWYERS FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS — $76,000 · OtherLAWYERS FOR THE CREATI…ILITCH CHARITIES INC — $32,500 · Other+31 more — $356,499 · Other+31 moreOWNERSHIP WORKS INC — $200,000 · Community ImprovementCOUNCIL FOR INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM — $100,000 · Community ImprovementIMMIGRATION EQUALITY — $77,500 · Civil RightsLAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND INC — $70,000 · Civil RightsTHE TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER — $60,000 · Civil RightsHEARTLAND ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL INC — $45,000 · Civil RightsCHILDREN'S RIGHTS INC — $25,000 · Civil RightsGIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE — $10,000 · Civil RightsLegal Services of Greater Miami Foundation Inc — $10,000 · Civil RightsHUMAN RIGHTS FIRST — $133,000 · InternationalHIAS INC — $45,000 · InternationalUNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF — $20,000 · InternationalUnited States Association for UNHCR — $10,000 · InternationalWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC — $10,000 · InternationalTHE URBAN ASSEMBLY INC — $10,000 · InternationalMYRIAD USA INC — $10,000 · InternationalDKMS — $125,000 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc — $30,333 · HealthBREAST CARE FOR WASHINGTON — $29,500 · HealthCHRISTOPHER REEVE FOUNDATION — $17,000 · HealthHELMS HOPE FOUNDATION — $15,000 · HealthBREAKTHROUGH T1D — $15,000 · Health+1 more — $5,667 · Health
Crime & Legal$1,420,835Education$1,132,400Other$897,749Community Improvement$300,000Civil Rights$297,500International$238,000Health$237,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetGREENHILL SCHOOL — $800,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetEQUAL JUSTICE WORKS — $480,235 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION — $254,400 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetLEGAL AID CHICAGO — $245,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetOWNERSHIP WORKS INC — $200,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetHUMAN RIGHTS FIRST — $133,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetDKMS — $125,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc — $102,500 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetCOUNCIL FOR INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM — $100,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetNIJC NFP — $92,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetEQUIP FOR EQUALITY — $87,500 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetCHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC — $80,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetIMMIGRATION EQUALITY — $77,500 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetLAWYERS FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS — $76,000 over 4y, 6.3% of budgetLAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC — $75,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetLAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND INC — $70,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBET TZEDEK — $65,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetASCEND JUSTICE — $65,000 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetLegal Services of Greater Miami Inc — $61,250 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER — $60,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetWASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND URBAN AFFAIRS INC — $52,500 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetAMERICAN HEALTH LAW ASSOCIATION — $50,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPUBLIC LAW CENTER — $45,750 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetHIAS INC — $45,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHEARTLAND ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL INC — $45,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPublic Interest Law Initiative — $44,000 over 4y, 1.0% of budgetGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $41,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLAWYERS FOR CHILDREN AMERICA INC — $41,250 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetPRO BONO PARTNERSHIP OF ATLANTA INC — $40,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetMattachine Society of Washington DC — $37,500 over 1y, 16% of budgetKIND INC — $35,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetILITCH CHARITIES INC — $32,500 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc — $30,333 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law — $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBREAST CARE FOR WASHINGTON — $29,500 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDC BAR PRO BONO CENTER — $25,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCHILDREN'S RIGHTS INC — $25,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION — $21,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP HARBOR VIEW FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NEW YORK OPPORTUNITY NETWORK INC DBA THE OPPORTUNITY NETWORK — $20,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF LOS ANGELES INC — $19,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHRISTOPHER REEVE FOUNDATION — $17,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetVICTIM RIGHTS LAW CENTER INC — $15,250 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHELMS HOPE FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 20% of budgetJUSTICE IN AGING — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Sidley Austin Fou…Perkins Coie Foundati…Equal Justice WorksKatten Muchin Rosenma…The Morrison & Foerst…The Skadden FoundationUnited Way Miami IncPolk Bros Foundation …The Chicago Bar Found…The Gibson Dunn & Cru…Weil Gotshal & Manges…Venable Foundation Inc
The Sidley Austin FoundationIL62.8× affinity29 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Sidley Austin Foundation · Perkins Coie Foundation · Equal Justice Works · Katten Muchin Rosenman Foundation Inc · The Morrison & Foerster Foundation · The Skadden Foundation · United Way Miami Inc · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Chicago Bar Foundation · The Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Foundation · Weil Gotshal & Manges Foundation Inc · Venable Foundation Inc

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

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Mc Dermott Will and Emery Charitable Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 23%
  • Victim Rights Law Center Inc — 89% of income from government
  • Hias Inc — 88% of income from government
  • Lawyers Without Borders Inc — 69% of income from government
  • Christopher Reeve Foundation — 49% of income from government
  • University of Delaware — 30% of income from government
  • United Way Miami Inc — 23% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc — 22% of income from government
  • Lawyers for Children America Inc — 19% of income from government
  • Women's Lunch Place Inc — 8% of income from government
  • Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc — 2% of income from government
  • Camp Harbor View Foundation Inc — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
28report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
3rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Mc Dermott Will and Emery Charitable Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Mc Dermott Will and Emery 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 93 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines