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Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable

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.

$180k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
9
Grants FY2025
8
Organizations funded FY2024
100%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$30,000
Organizations funded a year
3 to 9
FY2021 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
4
Total assets, FY2025
$1.2M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 100% of the organizations Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable funded were first-time grantees, receiving 100% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $180k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationOther
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 yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving8$170k13%
FY20248$180k100%
FY20239$220k33%
FY20224$70k100%
FY20213$90kn/a
79% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$280kEducation$90kInternational$60kReligion$60kAnimals$50kPhilanthropy$30kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Project Zawadi Inc$60,00025%
Daystar US Inc$60,00023%
Arizona Musicfest Inc$50,00020%
Phoenix Symphony Association$50,00020%
Musical Instrument Museum$50,00020%
Scottsdale Arts$35,00020%
Marvelwood School Inc$30,00020%
Imprints of Honor$5,00011%

Plus 11 recipients with no EIN on record ($390k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetProject Zawadi Inc: $60,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetDaystar US Inc: $60,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetArizona Musicfest Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetPhoenix Symphony Association: $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetMusical Instrument Museum: $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetScottsdale Arts: $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMarvelwood School Inc: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetImprints of Honor: $5,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budget

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 8.

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.

Arizona Community Fou…National Philanthropi…The Bank of America C…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Arizona Community FoundationAZ13.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Arizona Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable with peer funders

About Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable

How much does Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable give?
Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable reported 9 grants totaling $180,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 9 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.
What does Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable fund?
By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (19%), Education (6%), International (4%).
Who are Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Project Zawadi Inc ($60k), Daystar US Inc ($60k), Arizona Musicfest Inc ($50k).
Does Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 100% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable 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 Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Arizona Community Foundation, National Philanthropic Trust, The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc.
Where is Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable based?
Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable is based in IL.

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 20 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

Play a game based on Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home