Illinois · Private foundation
Special Kids Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $200k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 9
- Grants FY2025
- 6
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 17%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $25,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $35,306
- Organizations funded a year
- 6 to 11
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $3.5M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 17% of the organizations Special Kids Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 15% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 9 | $200k | 11% |
| FY2024 | 6 | $147k | 17% |
| FY2023 | 8 | $150k | 38% |
| FY2022 | 11 | $200k | 45% |
| FY2021 | 8 | $170k | 25% |
| FY2020 | 7 | $160k | 71% |
| FY2019 | 6 | $149k | 33% |
| FY2018 | 8 | $150k | 50% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired | $210,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Parents Alliance Employment Project | $111,211 | 5 | 3% |
| Center for Independence through Conductive Education Inc | $100,000 | 5 | 1% |
| Special Gifts Theatre Inc Co Elise Larsen | $90,490 | 4 | 4% |
| Oak Leyden Developmental Services Inc | $86,269 | 3 | 1% |
| La Rabida Children's Hospital | $76,913 | 4 | 0% |
| Search Inc | $65,000 | 3 | 0% |
| Children's Research Triangle | $49,500 | 4 | 1% |
| The Nora Project | $44,150 | 2 | 3% |
| Have Dreams | $43,750 | 2 | 2% |
Show all 21 grantees
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired | $210,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Parents Alliance Employment Project | $111,211 | 5 | 3% |
| Center for Independence through Conductive Education Inc | $100,000 | 5 | 1% |
| Special Gifts Theatre Inc Co Elise Larsen | $90,490 | 4 | 4% |
| Oak Leyden Developmental Services Inc | $86,269 | 3 | 1% |
| La Rabida Children's Hospital | $76,913 | 4 | 0% |
| Search Inc | $65,000 | 3 | 0% |
| Children's Research Triangle | $49,500 | 4 | 1% |
| The Nora Project | $44,150 | 2 | 3% |
| Have Dreams | $43,750 | 2 | 2% |
| The Center for Enriched Living Inc | $40,000 | 2 | 1% |
| Jewish Council for Youth Services | $30,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Easter Seals Dupage & the Fox Valley Region | $26,000 | 1 | 0% |
| The Kids Equipment Network Nfp | $25,000 | 1 | 31% |
| Marklund Childrens Home | $22,128 | 1 | 0% |
| PACTT Learning Center | $11,400 | 1 | 0% |
| Our Place of New Trier Township | $10,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Center for Independent Futures | $10,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Imagination Theater Inc | $8,600 | 1 | 4% |
| Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago Inc | $7,630 | 2 | 0% |
| Esperanza Community Services | $6,415 | 1 | 0% |
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 11 recipients with no EIN on record ($427k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Special Kids Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 21 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: The Coleman Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · AbbVie Foundation · The Service Club of Chicago · George M Eisenberg Foundation for Charities · Circle of Service Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · Carl R Hendrickson Family Fdn · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Baxter International Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Special Kids Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Special Kids 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.
About Special Kids Foundation
- How much does Special Kids Foundation give?
- Special Kids Foundation reported 9 grants totaling $200,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 6 and 11 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Special Kids Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (53%), Youth Development (10%), Employment (7%).
- Who are Special Kids Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired ($210k), Parents Alliance Employment Project ($111k), Center for Independence through Conductive Education Inc ($100k).
- Does Special Kids Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Special Kids Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Special Kids Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Coleman Foundation Inc, The Chicago Community Trust, AbbVie Foundation.
- Where is Special Kids Foundation based?
- Special Kids Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Special Kids’ filings →