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Ruth Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Ruth 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.

$51k
Granted FY2025still arriving
28
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$13k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0190% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2024 to 2025.

Religion$14kArts & Culture$6kEducation$6kPublic Safety & Disaster$5kHealth$5kFood & Nutrition$4kRecreation & Sports$3kEmployment$3kOther$0
02FY2025 · 28 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k27 grants · $38k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $13k
$1,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$65k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH$13,000
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION$5,500
100 CLUB OF ILLINOIS$5,000
PIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN RESOURCES$2,500
MCHENRY COUNTY FARM BUREAU$2,500
MCHENRY COUNTY FAIR FOUNDATION$2,250
MCHENRY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY$2,200
GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE$2,000
ROTARY OF MARCO ISLAND$2,000
NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE$2,000
VETERAN'S PATH TO HOPE$1,200
THE NICOLAS D SERGI FOUNDATION$1,036
MCHENRY COUNTY 4H YOUTH FOUNDATION$1,000
WOODSTOCK FOOD PANTRY$1,000
THE HUNTLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY$1,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $500) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%TURNING POINT: $500 → 6%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.
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 100% of Ruth Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 95% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 0%.

Ruth Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its field

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.

1
McHenry County Conservation Foundation

To promote, support, assist, sustain and encourage the charitable, educational, scientific and recreational programs, projects and policies of the McHenry County Conservation District and other open space organizations. This is…

Environment
2
Illinois Community Health Foundation Inc
—
3
Field Foundation of Illinois
—
4
Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation
Human Services
5
North Shore Health Care Foundation

To expand equitable health care and healthy living in Cook County and champion solutions through funding, education and advocacy.

Health
6
Illinois Partners for Human Service

Illinois Partners for Human Service's primary activities are (1) strengthening human services in communities throughout Illinois by building a unified human services sector; (2) working with leaders, the public, and others engaged in the…

Human Services
7
United Way of Illinois

Strengthen United Way movement in Illinois

Philanthropy
8
Illinois Fiscal Policy Council
Public Benefit
9
Mental Health Resource League for McHenry County Inc

Provide fnancial aid to mental health services in McHenry County to foster mental health programs to educate the general public of mental health problems and prevention.

Health
10
Illinois Chapter of National Societ Arts and Letters Inc
—
11
Sangamon County Farm Bureau

Advocating the voice of agriculture through education and grassroots legislation.

—
12
Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois

Research and recommendations on tax and spending issues

Community Improvement
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The 100 Club of Illinois; the most unlike its peers is Nicholas D Sergi Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

17 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. 17 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
3/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH: $13,000 · OtherFIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHTHE 100 CLUB OF ILLINOIS: $5,000 · OtherTHE 100 CLUB OF ILLINOISPIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN RESOURCES: $2,500 · OtherPIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN RESOURCESMCHENRY COUNTY FARM BUREAU: $2,500 · OtherMCHENRY COUNTY FARM BUREAUROTARY OF MARCO ISLAND: $2,000 · OtherGIGIS PLAYHOUSE: $2,000 · OtherNORTHWESTERN MEDICINE: $2,000 · Other+14 more: $8,854 · Other+14 moreUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $5,500 · EducationUniversity …MCHENRY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $3,200 · Arts & CultureMCHENRY COUNTY FAIR FOUNDATION: $2,250 · Recreation & SportsTHE JACK BEAR FOUNDATION NFP: $1,000 · HealthFamily Health Partnership Clinic: $750 · HealthBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF MCHENRY COUNTY INC: $1,050 · Youth DevelopmentHuntley Youth Football Inc: $500 · Youth DevelopmentNicholas D Sergi Foundation: $1,036 · PhilanthropyST BALDRICK'S FOUNDATION INC: $500 · Philanthropy
Other$37,854Education$5,500Arts & Culture$3,200Recreation & Sports$2,250Health$1,750Youth Development$1,550Philanthropy$1,536

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $5,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMCHENRY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $3,200 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMCHENRY COUNTY FARM BUREAU: $2,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetMCHENRY COUNTY FAIR FOUNDATION: $2,250 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF MCHENRY COUNTY INC: $1,050 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNicholas D Sergi Foundation: $1,036 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMcHenry County 4-H Youth Foundation Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetWoodstock Food Pantry: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JACK BEAR FOUNDATION NFP: $1,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetFamily Health Partnership Clinic: $750 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHuntley Youth Football Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetST BALDRICK'S FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTurning Point Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetILLINOIS SHERIFFS' ASSOCIATION: $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIndependence Health & Therapy: $250 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.

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.

The Community Foundat…Foglia Family Foundat…Lichtenheld Family Fo…Full Circle FoundationNorthwestern Memorial…AbbVie FoundationMental Health Resourc…The Bersted FoundationAptargroup Charitable…Kunes Family Foundati…The Chicago Community…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…
The Community Foundation for McHenry CountyIL22× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation for McHenry County · Foglia Family Foundation · Lichtenheld Family Foundation · Full Circle Foundation · Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Group · AbbVie Foundation · Mental Health Resource League for McHenry County Inc · The Bersted Foundation · Aptargroup Charitable Foundation · Kunes Family Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Jpmorgan Chase 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    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 Ruth Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Ruth Family 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

    Play a game based on Ruth Family’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