· Private foundation
Ruth Oliver Secord Perpetual Charitable Trust
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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $61k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $193k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH | $42,500 |
| WASHINGTON & JANE SMITH COMMUNITY | $31,620 |
| BEVERLY ARTS CENTER | $20,000 |
| KATE S KELLOGG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| ELIZABETH H SUTHERLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| HENRY R CLISSOLD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| BEVERLY AREA PLANNING ASSOCIATION | $15,000 |
| BEVERLY AREA ARTS ALLIANCE | $15,000 |
| FRIENDS OF THE FOREST PRESERVES | $13,500 |
| MAPLE MORGAN PARK COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY | $10,000 |
| GEORGE F CASSELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $6,000 |
| MOUNT GREENWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $6,000 |
| JOHN H VANDERPOEL ELEMENTARY MAGNET | $6,000 |
| ALICE L BARNARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $6,000 |
| BARBARA VICK EARLY CHILDHOOD | $6,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY20–25, $214k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
34 repeat relationships — 21 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- BABeverly Arts Center of Chicago8× · 2018–2025 · $195k · revenue +8%
- BABeverly Area Planning Association8× · 2018–2025 · $138k · revenue +4%
- MPMORGAN PARK ACADEMY4× · 2019–2025 · $20k · revenue +14%
Funded once
- BMBEVERLY MORGAN PARK COMMUNITY OF CHURCHone grant, 2020 · $8k
- DRDAN RYAN WOODS GOLD STARMOTHERS MEMORIALone grant, 2022 · $1k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Garfield Park Community Council is dedicated to the revitalization of Garfield Park community on Chicago's West Side, a neighborhood of rich history, committed residents, and tremendous opportunities.
We strive to make aging easier through the development of a network of services for older persons designed to optimize the quality of their lives.
Founded in 1934, the metropolitan planning council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders committed to serving the public interest through the promotion and implementation of sensible planning and development…
Promote the common business of its members.
Historic Beverly collects, preserves, and stewards Beverlys past and present to cultivate public support and appreciation for history; our vision is to share Beverly history with everyone.
Chicago public art group brings artists and communities together to produce high-quality public art, extending and transforming the tradition of collaborative, community-involved public artwork.
Chicago sun-times serves the public interest by strengthening the well-being of our local communities and our democracy through independent local journalism.
The Organization facilitates and informs the development of and advocacy for responsible policies improving the food sovereignty of Chicago residents as they have power and control to determine culturally appropriate, nutritionally sound…
The purpose of the hyde park art center (the art center) is to stimulate and sustain the visual arts in chicago. it does so by challenging and supporting artists, connecting artists to a broader public, and creating a community of people…
Chicago Hope runs a food pantry twice a week that serves over 100 families. The organization is working toward the furtherance of wrap around services.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Washington and Jane Smith Community - Beverly and the most unlike its peers is American Gold Star Mothers Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 36 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds WASHINGTON AND JANE SMITH COMMUNITY - BEVERLY ↗
- Who funds Beverly Arts Center of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Beverly Area Planning Association ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE FOREST PRESERVES ↗
- Who funds MAPLE MORGAN PRK COMM FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds Beverly Area Arts Alliance ↗
- Who funds A NEW DIRECTION BEVERLY MORGAN PARK ↗
- Who funds MORGAN PARK ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds WINGS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN GOLD STAR MOTHERS INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Ruth Oliver Secord Perpetual Charitable Trust funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Ruth Oliver Secord Perpetual Charitable Trust?
Find your warmest path to Ruth Oliver Secord Perpetual Charitable Trust 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.