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· Private foundation

Robert E Shepherd Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$25k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$150k
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$78k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF ROBERT MUNACO$5,000
INDIANA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF RYAN BURNS$5,000
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF MAX BRUZGA$5,000
UNIVERISTY OF WISCONSIN ON BEHALF OF ILAN CAMBALIZA$5,000
NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF LUCAS SMARDO$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 63% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ON BEHALF OF AMELIA FONTANA: $5k → 15%DRAKE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF JACOB VINS: $5k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA ON BEHALF OF SAMUEL PREMAK: $5k → 15%SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF DANIEL PATER: $5k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ON BEHALF OF ALEXANDRA FONTANA: $5k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON ON BEHALF OF HANNAH KACZOR: $5k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE ON BEHALF OF ROXANNE SPATZ: $5k → 12%VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF ADRIANA SCUMACI: $5k → 9%INDIANA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF RYAN BURNS: $5k → 18%CEDARVILLE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF ACACIA GOTTSCHALK: $5k → 9%JOLIET JR COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF ANTHONY SIGNORILE: $5k → 7%ILLINOIS WESLEYAN ON BEHALF OF JOSEPH CHRISTENSEN: $5k → 11%NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF LUCAS SMARDO: $5k → 13%LOYOLA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF SHANNON LEATHERMAN: $5k → 14%BRADLEY UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF SAIGE HEELEIN: $5k → 14%KNOX COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF SAVERIO SCUMACI: $5k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF ALEXA DIAZ: $5k → 19%UNIVERISTY OF WISCONSIN ON BEHALF OF ILAN CAMBALIZA: $5k → 10%ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF VALERIA GARCIA: $5k → 11%LOYOLA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF MAX BRUZGA: $5k → 14%BRADLEY UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF EMMILY SCUMACI: $5k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF DORIAN SNOPKO: $5k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ON BEHALF OF PAUL KACZOR: $5k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF ROBERT MUNACO: $5k → 19%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
WI
MI
IA
IN
OH
TN
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field
04the grantee network

2 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. 2 of the 30 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
2/2
Grantees still filing
1/2
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF VALERIA GARCIA: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF DORIAN SNOPKO: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWA ON BEHALF OF SAMUEL PREMAK: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ON BEHALF OF ALEXANDRA FONTANA: $5,000 · OtherKNOX COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF SAVERIO SCUMACI: $5,000 · OtherILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF LAUREN BENDUHA: $5,000 · OtherILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF SHANNON RANALLI: $5,000 · OtherJOLIET JR COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF ANTHONY SIGNORILE: $5,000 · OtherBRADLEY UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF SAIGE HEELEIN: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF ALEXA DIAZ: $5,000 · OtherVANDERBILT UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF JESSICA PASCHKE: $5,000 · OtherSOUTHWEST MICHIGAN COLLEGE ON BEHALF OF DANIEL PATER: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ON BEHALF OF AMELIA FONTANA: $5,000 · OtherVALPARAISO UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF ADRIANA SCUMACI: $5,000 · OtherNORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF LUCAS SMARDO: $5,000 · OtherILLINOIS WESLEYAN ON BEHALF OF JOSEPH CHRISTENSEN: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON ON BEHALF OF HANNAH KACZOR: $5,000 · OtherDRAKE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF JACOB VINS: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ON BEHALF OF ROBERT MUNACO: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ON BEHALF OF PAUL KACZOR: $5,000 · OtherILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF AVA MURRAY: $5,000 · OtherINDIANA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF RYAN BURNS: $5,000 · OtherLOYOLA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF MAX BRUZGA: $5,000 · OtherILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF ERNEST BERDYCHOWSKI: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERISTY OF WISCONSIN ON BEHALF OF ILAN CAMBALIZA: $5,000 · OtherIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF ANTONIA KUBAS: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE ON BEHALF OF ROXANNE SPATZ: $5,000 · OtherLOYOLA UNIVERSITY ON BEHALF OF SHANNON LEATHERMAN: $5,000 · OtherBRADLEY UNIVERSITY: $5,000 · EducationCedarville University: $5,000 · Education
Other$140,000Education$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%grantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBRADLEY UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCedarville University: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 BRADLEY UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Cedarville University ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Robert E Shepherd Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert E Shepherd Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Robert E Shepherd Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Robert E Shepherd 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 30 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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