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· Private foundation

Shoenberger Public Interest

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$2k
Largest
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$7kReligion$6kCrime & Legal$4kHealth$4kInternational$3kArts & Culture$2kYouth Development$1kFood & Nutrition$106Other$0
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$8k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES$1,500
AMERICAN BAR ASS'N FOR JUSTICE$200
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%SISTER CITIES OF CHICAGO: $1k → 14%SILVER LINING FOUNDATION: $3k → 14%SISTER CITIES OF CHICAGO: $500 → 14%CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES: $2k → 14%CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES: $1k → 14%LATINOS PROGRESANDO: $1k → 14%CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES: $500 → 14%CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES: $500 → 14%JESSE WHITE FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO: $6k → 14%YES MA'AM CIRCUS: $500 → 14%KIDS IN DANGER: $1k → 14%AMERICAN BAR ASS'N FOR JUSTICE: $500 → 14%AMERICAN BAR ASS'N FOR JUSTICE: $200 → 14%DEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $3k → 14%DEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $3k → 14%DEPAUL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: $2k → 14%INTERNATIONAL WOMEN ASSOCIATES: $1k → 14%WORLD BUS CHICAGO: $500 → 14%CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $106 → 14%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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

42%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$11k · 4 repeat orgs$16k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +66% since the first grant, against +20% for those funded once.

4 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
10

Total granted

$11k
$16k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+20%

Still filing today

50%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHealthHousing & ShelterOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • DU
    DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2022–2023 · $6k · revenue +9%
  • CV
    CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION
    4× · 2020–2024 · $4k · revenue +66%
  • SC
    SISTER CITIES OF CHICAGO
    2× · 2022–2023 · $2k

Funded once

  • AO
    ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO
    one grant, 2022 · $6k
  • AS
    A SILVER LINING FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $3k · revenue +63%
  • DU
    DEPAUL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
    one grant, 2020 · $2k
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.

04Its 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
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
2
Students Run Chicago
Health
3
The Chicago Innovation Foundation
Philanthropy
4
Impact Grants Chicago

Impact Grants Chicago connects, engages and inspires women to improve the community of Chicago by collectively funding $100,000 grants to Chicago nonprofits that are dedicated to addressing the challenges facing the city.

Philanthropy
5
Chicago Toy & Game Foundation
—
6
Latinas Usa
Community Improvement
7
Chicago Cred Inc
Employment
8
Chamber Opera of Chicago
—
9
International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago

Develop, promote and increase awareness of latino cultures among latino communities through film and video events, education and other art forms

—
10
Kaival Gyan Chicago Foundation
Philanthropy
11
Legal Aid Chicago

At legal aid chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental…

Crime & Legal
12
Chicago Women in Philanthropy

Chicago Women in Philanthropy (CWIP) promotes collaboration between philanthropic and nonprofit leaders by offering opportunities to share ideas and insight and to network. CWIP gives voice to the gender lens by encouraging philanthropic…

Community Improvement
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Yes Maam Circus. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 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. 8 of the 14 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
5/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO: $5,500 · OtherARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGOCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION: $3,500 · OtherCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATIONDEPAUL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: $1,800 · OtherDEPAUL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAWSISTER CITIES OF CHICAGO: $1,500 · OtherSISTER CITIES OF CHICAGOKids In Danger: $1,039 · OtherKids In DangerAMERICAN BAR ASS'N FOR JUSTICE: $700 · Other+3 more: $1,106 · Other+3 moreDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $5,676 · EducationDEPAUL UNIVERSITYJESSE WHITE FOUNDATION LTD: $1,050 · EducationJESSE WHITE FOUNDATION LTDA SILVER LINING FOUNDATION: $3,025 · HealthA SILVER LIN…International Women Associates Inc: $1,000 · Housing & ShelterLatinos Progresando: $1,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$15,145Education$6,726Health$3,025Housing & Shelter$1,000Arts & Culture$1,000

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 budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $5,676 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION: $3,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetA SILVER LINING FOUNDATION: $3,025 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetJESSE WHITE FOUNDATION LTD: $1,050 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKids In Danger: $1,039 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetInternational Women Associates Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetLatinos Progresando: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYES MAAM CIRCUS: $500 over 1y, 1.3% 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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Shoenberger Public Interest funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Shoenberger Public Interest. 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%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Shoenberger Public Interest?

    Find your warmest path to Shoenberger Public Interest 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 14 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

    Source object · view filing

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