How much does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation give?

Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation reported 17 grants totaling $126,198 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 24 organizations a year over FY2022 to FY2024.

What does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2022 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (21%), Religion (20%), Education (19%).

Who are Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2022 to FY2025: University of Chicago ($53k), SkyArt NFP ($28k), Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago ($21k).

Does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 46% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Mendelson-Wolff 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 Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Arie and Ida Crown Memorial.

Where is Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation based?

Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation is based in IL.

Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

Mendelson-Wolff Family 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.

$126k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 17
Grants FY2025: 24
Organizations funded FY2024: 46%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $2,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $50,000
Organizations funded a year: 13 to 24; FY2022 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 5
Total assets, FY2025: $1.6M
Applications: Preselected organizations only; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 46% of the organizations Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 21% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureEducationInternationalPublic BenefitFood & NutritionHuman ServicesOther

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	17	$126k	41%
FY2024	24	$71k	46%
FY2023	23	$49k	74%
FY2022	13	$34k	n/a

91% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$64kReligion$63kEducation$59kPhilanthropy$53kInternational$28kYouth Development$7kHealth$6kCivil Rights$6kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2022 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
University of Chicago	$53,000	3	0%
SkyArt NFP	$28,064	4	0%
Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago	$21,000	3	0%
Lookingglass Theatre Company	$15,500	3	0%
Mishkan Chicago	$9,967	3	n/a
Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership	$8,500	1	0%
Chicago Humanities Festival	$7,500	2	0%
Storycatchers	$5,500	2	0%
Temple Sholom of Chicago	$5,155	1	n/a
Chicago Abortion Fund	$5,025	1	0%

Show all 26 grantees

All grantees of Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
University of Chicago	$53,000	3	0%
SkyArt NFP	$28,064	4	0%
Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago	$21,000	3	0%
Lookingglass Theatre Company	$15,500	3	0%
Mishkan Chicago	$9,967	3	n/a
Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership	$8,500	1	0%
Chicago Humanities Festival	$7,500	2	0%
Storycatchers	$5,500	2	0%
Temple Sholom of Chicago	$5,155	1	n/a
Chicago Abortion Fund	$5,025	1	0%
Grant Park Orchestral Association	$5,000	2	0%
Run for Something Action Fund	$2,000	1	0%
University of Illinois Foundation	$2,000	1	0%
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	$2,000	1	n/a
The Marfan Foundation Inc	$2,000	3	0%
Open Books Ltd	$2,000	1	0%
Anshe Emet Synagogue	$2,000	1	n/a
3arts Inc	$2,000	1	0%
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum	$1,500	3	0%
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces	$1,000	1	0%
Greater Chicago Food Depository	$750	2	0%
Restore Justice Foundation	$512	1	0%
American Friends of Magen David Adom	$500	1	0%
Red Tent Fund	$500	1	0%
MAZON A Jewish Response to Hunger	$433	2	0%
Chicago Jewish Historical Society	$216	2	0%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 22 recipients with no EIN on record ($97k), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Mendelson-Wolff Family 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 22.

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.

John D and Catherine T Macarthur FoundationIL23× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Arkes Family Foundation · Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation · Reva and David Logan Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · The Allstate Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation with peer funders

About Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation

How much does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation give?: Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation reported 17 grants totaling $126,198 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 24 organizations a year over FY2022 to FY2024.
What does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2022 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (21%), Religion (20%), Education (19%).
Who are Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2022 to FY2025: University of Chicago ($53k), SkyArt NFP ($28k), Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago ($21k).
Does Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 46% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Mendelson-Wolff 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 Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Arie and Ida Crown Memorial.
Where is Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation based?: Mendelson-Wolff Family Foundation is based in IL.