· Private foundation
Polk Family Charitable Fund
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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k66 grants · $137k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $88k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CRADLES TO CRAYONS | $50,000 |
| AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| WELLESLEY COLLEGE | $20,000 |
| FRIENDS OF ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES | $20,000 |
| ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM FOUNDATION | $14,000 |
| COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION | $14,000 |
| ORT AMERICA | $9,000 |
| SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY | $8,000 |
| RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION | $7,500 |
| SCHOOL ALTERNATIVES | $7,000 |
| LURIE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION | $6,700 |
| BOULDER SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS | $6,650 |
| CHURCH OF CHRIST CO LANDON WEEKS | $6,000 |
| AMERICAN ASSOC FOR SURGERY OF TRAUMA | $5,000 |
| AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY18–25, $178k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
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 +36% since the first grant, against +25% for those funded once.
107 repeat relationships: 56 still active in FY2025, 51 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WCWellesley College7× · 2018–2025 · $125k · revenue +81%
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION8× · 2018–2025 · $110k · revenue +50%- OAORT AMERICA INC8× · 2018–2025 · $69k · revenue +29%
Funded once
- NLNORTH LAWNDALE EMPLOYMENT NETWORKone grant, 2023 · $40k · revenue -43%
- YMYWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGOone grant, 2021 · $30k · revenue -4%
- RWREVOLUTION WORKSHOPgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +66%
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.
The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.
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.
The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…
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…
The aids foundation of chicago mobilizes communities to create equity and justice for people living with and vulnerable to hiv and related chronic disease.
To provide immediate financial assistance to families of public safety officers and firefighters who are seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, and to provide resources to enhance their safety and welfare.
Inspired by the gift of donation from our communities, allosource responsibly provides innovative cellular and tissue allografts to advance patient healing.
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…
To perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of the arizona community foundation, an az nonprofit corporation, so long as the arizona community foundation, inc. remains a qualified organization.
National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…
The vermont community foundation helps to build philanthropic resources to sustain healthy and vital vermont communities. the foundation connects and mobilizes people through giving to multiply the impact of philanthropy.
A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.
How this is measured
107 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. 107 of the 194 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.
- Who funds Wellesley College ↗
- Who funds RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ORT AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC ↗
- Who funds Jewish Council on Urban Affairs ↗
- Who funds SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds WILD BEAR NATURE CENTER ↗
- Who funds NORTH LAWNDALE EMPLOYMENT NETWORK ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds REVOLUTION WORKSHOP ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO POLICE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds INTERCAMBIO DE COMUNIDADES ↗
- Who funds PRO PUBLICA INC ↗
- Who funds The Wounded Blue ↗
- Who funds SHAW FESTIVAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds PAWS CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds DOWNTOWN BOULDER COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF COLORADO INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MEMORIAL FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Latino Union of Chicago ↗
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: Community Foundation Boulder County · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Emsa Fund Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Dr Scholl Foundation · Arizona Community Foundation · Motorola Solutions Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Healthcare Foundation of Highland Park · AbbVie Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Polk Family Charitable Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Polk Family Charitable Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- New Avenues for Youth Inc: 20% of income from government
- Community Transitional School: 7% of income from government
- Performance Works Northwest Inc: 3% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc: 2% of income from government
- Pear: 1% of income from government
- Wellesley College: 1% of income from government
- Suffolk University: 1% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Polk Family Charitable Fund?
Find your warmest path to Polk Family Charitable Fund 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.
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