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Plinth

· Private foundation

Mickelson 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.

$2k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$1k
Largest
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 FY20172025.

Education$10kCommunity Improvement$8kHealth$7kHuman Services$3kInternational$2kCivil Rights$1kRecreation & Sports$1kPhilanthropy$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$46k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BACK OF THE YARDS NEIGHBORHOOD$1,000
CENTER ON HALSTED$936
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 (FY22–25, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Center on Halsted: $1k → 14%CENTER ON HALSTED: $936 → 14%CENTER ON HALSTED: $700 → 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.

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.

58%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$20k · 5 repeat orgs$14k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
13

Total granted

$20k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
+56%

Still filing today

100%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationAnimalsCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesInternationalPhilanthropyOther

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

  • BO
    BACK OF THE YARDS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
    7× · 2018–2025 · $8k · revenue +62%
  • FW
    Francis W Parker School
    3× · 2018–2020 · $6k · revenue +38%
  • CF
    COLLABORATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD
    3× · 2018–2023 · $3k · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC
    one grant, 2022 · $2k · revenue +2%
  • CB
    CURE BLINDNESS PROJECT
    one grant, 2024 · $2k
  • KD
    Kovler Diabetes Center
    one grant, 2019 · $2k

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
Union Health System

To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.

Health
2
Detroit Historical Society

The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.

Arts & Culture
3
Loyola University of Chicago

We are chicago's jesuit, catholic university - a diverse community seeking god in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.

Education
4
National Opinion Research Center

See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…

Social Science
5
Uchicago Medicine Network Inc

Uchicago medicine network, inc. supports and encourages health and human service by providing support, directly or indirectly to ingalls memorial hospital, the university of chicago medical center, and other related tax-exempt…

Health
6
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

The Jewish Council on Urban Affair's (JCUA) longstanding mission is to combat poverty, racism and antisemitism working in partnership with diverse communities. JCUA uses a community organizing model to engage the Jewish community in the…

Community Improvement
7
The Family Institute

Our mission is to strengthen and heal families and individuals from all walks of life through clinical service, education and research.

8
Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States Inc

The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…

Health
9
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies Inc

The network is an international membership association of more than 170 non profit human service agencies in the united states, canada and israel. its members provide a full range of human services for the jewish community and beyond,…

Human Services
10
Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare

Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
11
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
12
Lyric Opera of Chicago

We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance the…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Howard Brown Health Center and the most unlike its peers is 51st Street Business Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

11 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 18 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
11/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

BACK OF THE YARDS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL — $7,500 · OtherBACK OF THE YARDS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILCURE BLINDNESS PROJECT — $2,000 · OtherCURE BLINDNESS PROJECTKovler Diabetes Center — $2,000 · OtherKovler Diabetes CenterThe Leukemia Lymphoma Society — $1,000 · OtherThe Leukemia Lymphoma SocietyHoward Brown Health Center — $1,000 · OtherHoward Brown Health CenterHadiya Pendleton Park Advisory Coun — $1,000 · OtherHadiya Pendleton Park Advisory CounTEMPLE SHOLOM OF CHICAGO — $1,000 · OtherTEMPLE SHOLOM OF CHICAGOCommunity Health — $600 · Other+1 more — $500 · OtherFrancis W Parker School — $6,000 · EducationFrancis W Parker SchoolCOLLABORATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD — $3,000 · EducationCOLLABORATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOODFAMILY EQUALITY — $1,200 · EducationFAMILY EQUALITYWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 · EducationWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INCCenter on Halsted — $2,636 · Human ServicesHIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC — $2,000 · InternationalJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $1,000 · PhilanthropySHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY — $500 · Animals51st Street Business Association — $500 · Community Improvement
Other$16,600Education$11,200Human Services$2,636International$2,000Philanthropy$1,000Animals$500Community Improvement$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 budgetBACK OF THE YARDS NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL — $7,500 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetFrancis W Parker School — $6,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOLLABORATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD — $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCenter on Halsted — $2,636 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFAMILY EQUALITY — $1,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHoward Brown Health Center — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget51st Street Business Association — $500 over 1y, 0.4% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.

The Chicago Community TrustIL12.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust

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 Mickelson Family 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    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 18 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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