Illinois · Private foundation
Special People in Need
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $325k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 79
- Grants FY2025
- 75
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 20%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $5,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $7,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 60 to 82
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 29
- 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, 20% of the organizations Special People in Need funded were first-time grantees, receiving 22% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $81k 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 | 79 | $325k | 23% |
| FY2024 | 75 | $375k | 20% |
| FY2023 | 70 | $310k | 19% |
| FY2022 | 82 | $303k | 29% |
| FY2021 | 65 | $217k | 12% |
| FY2020 | 60 | $179k | 22% |
| FY2019 | 68 | $195k | 40% |
| FY2018 | 65 | $163k | 45% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catching the Dream | $47,000 | 9 | 2% |
| Samaritan's Purse | $45,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Disabled Patriot Fund Inc | $44,500 | 9 | 5% |
| Center for Music by People With Disabilities | $42,500 | 9 | 7% |
| Can Do Canines | $38,500 | 9 | 0% |
| Free Wheelchair Mission | $37,500 | 8 | 0% |
| Alice Lloyd College | $35,500 | 9 | 0% |
| Ability Found Corporation | $33,500 | 8 | 0% |
| Womens Resource Center | $32,000 | 7 | 1% |
| Help Center Inc | $32,000 | 7 | 0% |
Show all 141 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 62 recipients with no EIN on record ($537k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Special People in Need supplied at peak.
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: Christopher Reeve Foundation · George M Eisenberg Foundation for Charities · Helen V Brach Foundation · Goldenberg Max Tw M G Foundation · Town Pump Charitable Foundation · Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Inc · The Service Club of Chicago · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · Stern Sidney Memorial Tuw · Jolley Family Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Greater Gallatin United Way Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Special People in Need?
Find your warmest path to Special People in Need 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 People in Need
- How much does Special People in Need give?
- Special People in Need reported 79 grants totaling $324,800 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 60 and 82 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Special People in Need fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (26%), Education (14%), Human Services (13%).
- Who are Special People in Need's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Catching the Dream ($47k), Samaritan's Purse ($45k), Disabled Patriot Fund Inc ($45k).
- Does Special People in Need fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Special People in Need accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Special People in Need?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Christopher Reeve Foundation, George M Eisenberg Foundation for Charities, Helen V Brach Foundation.
- Where is Special People in Need based?
- Special People in Need is based in IL.
Play a game based on Special People in Need’s filings →