How much did Special Kids Foundation grant in FY2025?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 80% of Special Kids Foundation’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

—

2020

noracamp

2021

noracamp

2022

therapy

2023

—

2024

—

2025

chicago

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k2 grants · $10k
$10k–50k7 grants · $190k

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.5M

Total assets

Largest grants

Helping Hand$35,306
The Chicago Lighthouse$35,000
The Kids Equipment Network$30,000
Search Inc$25,000
Special Gifts Theatre$25,000
Oak Leydon Developmental Services$23,269
Parents Alliance Employment Project$16,660
Esperanza Community Services$6,415
Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago$3,350

02The need

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY23–23, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14% — the area typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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; 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge

repeat funding

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.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$1.1M · 16 repeat orgs$262k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +53% since the first grant, against +46% for the ones you funded once.

16 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.1M

$229k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+53%

+46%

Still filing today

50%

46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $33k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthEmploymentArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesOther

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

PA
Parents Alliance Employment Project
4× · 2019–2025 · $91k · revenue +110%
SG
Special Gifts Theatre
3× · 2018–2025 · $72k · revenue +20%
SI
Search Inc
3× · 2020–2025 · $65k · revenue +17%

Funded once

OD
OAK-LEYDEN DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICESgraduated
one grant, 2023 · $38k · revenue +63%
OD
OAK-LEYDEN DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICESSS
one grant, 2020 · $31k
ES
EASTER SEALS DUPAGE AND THE FOX
one grant, 2018 · $28k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

Cape Abilities Inc

Training & job placement and resident services to disabled adults.

Human Services

Habilitative Services of

Serve developmentally disabled and children

Human Services

Spectrum for Living Development Inc

To enable individuals who have developmental and/or physical disabilities to have the opportunity to attain their highest level of skills, purpose and independence.

Human Services

The Arc of the Capital Area

Promoting independence and choice for adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities by providing individualized services.

—

Living Well Disability Services

Transforms lives of people impacted by disabilities through delivery of exceptional services

—

Ccri Inc

CCRI supports children, adults, and families touched by a disability. We inspire people to reach their full potential and we do not let a disability define who a person is. Our mission is to enhance and enrich the lives and learning of…

—

Children's Developmental Center

The organization empowers families and improves children's lives through comprehensive early intervention services, education, and therapeutic services. the organization primarily offers services to children from birth to three years with…

Education

Abilitypath Housing

To advance advocacy, inclusion, and independence for people with developmental disabilities

Human Services

Developmental Services Center of

Developmental services center (dsc) supports people with disabilities in living a rich and meaningful life. supports include employment, community day services, residential, case management and early intervention. dsc provides services to…

Human Services

Dreams With Wings Inc

To empower individuals with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, and autism as they recognize their strengths, contribute to their community and pursue their dreams.

Human Services

Developing Potential Inc

Operation of a Facility for training the severely handicapped to increase thier earning capabilities and to increase opportunities for health and wellness.

Employment

Hills and Dales Child Development Center

Build meaningful lives for people with intellectual disabilities and autism by offering services thatsupport the whole person and enhance community inclusion.

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Have Dreams and the most unlike its peers is Imagination Theater Inc. 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

16 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

16/16

Grantees still filing

15/16

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$1,060,975Employment$134,961Arts & Culture$71,760Health$33,890Youth Development$15,000Human Services$10,000

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.

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.

The Coleman Foundation IncIL20.3× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Coleman Foundation Inc · Circle of Service Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · The Service Club of Chicago · George M Eisenberg Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund

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 organisation Special Kids Foundation 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.

2025

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: Special Gifts Theatre.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~9 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 5 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

5 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 364353916 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on Special Gifts Theatre, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 9 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue grew over the period.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 4% of their budget — diversified.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Special Kids Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Special Kids Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

Special Kids Foundation

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

16 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Special Kids Foundation?

More from the funding graph

Special Kids Foundation

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

16 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Special Kids Foundation?

More from the funding graph