· Private foundation
Morrison-Shearer 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $15,000 |
| 3ARTS INC | $15,000 |
| THE RAGDALE FOUNDATION | $11,030 |
| CHICAGO DANCEMAKERS FORUM | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 93% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against -30% for those funded once.
6 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- RFRagdale Foundation5× · 2017–2024 · $50k · revenue +117%
- CDCHICAGO DANCE HISTORY PROJECT5× · 2017–2023 · $25k · revenue +71%
- CDChicago Dancemakers Forum3× · 2017–2024 · $20k · revenue +63%
Funded once
- KKhecarione grant, 2019 · $2k · revenue -30%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $1k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To build a foundation for the individual artistic growth of dancers and choreographers, providing a laboratory from which early career artists propel themselves and the art form to a new level through training, collaboration, mentorship,…
To enrich the lives of our community through dance education and performance while developing Chicago's native talent pool in a welcoming environment that celebrates multiculturalism & ethnic diversity.
To use multiple artistic forms (primarily dance and music) and the combined talents of our diverse company to convey intense personal narratives. We are proudly and visibly multicultural, exploring the intersection of heritage, culture,…
Reimagines and diversifies the aesthetics of contemporary dance by uniting modern, American, and African-American traditions in dance and storytelling.
Visceral Dance Chicago is a contemporary company dedicated to providing a comprehensive environment designed to cultivate dance education, creation and performance for choreographers, dancers, and artists.
Preserves and perpetuates bharata natyam, one of the great classical dance forms of india, in all its classical rigor, and moves the art form in innovative directions to foster cultural exchange through dance.
To develop educational programs, choreograph, perform, and produce dance that promotes an appreciation of, and participation in, aerial dance as a creative, physical and cultural art form.
Ballet Chicago is a professional track school of ballet that creates exceptional dancers. It makes classical ballet training accessible to all. Its founders Daniel Duell and Patricia Blair carry on George Balanchines legacy by providing…
The Organization creates movement-based works that expore the complexity of human experience. Using subtle gesture, explosive movement, humor, and interactive design, the organization develops projects at the crossroads of movement, visual…
Threewalls is dedicated to fostering contemporary art practices that respond to lived experiences, encouraging connections beyond art through performance, live exhibits, publications, all while connected segregated communities throughout…
Engages communities in their art and creative process through innovative modern dance performance and educational programs.
The mission of emergence dance is to expand access to dance for artists and audiences by performing, rehearsing, teaching, advising, presenting, curating and marketing dance.
How this is measured
7 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 7 of the 9 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
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: The Chicago Community Trust · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Morrison-Shearer Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Morrison-Shearer Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Morrison-Shearer’s filings →