Illinois · Private foundation
Square One Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $7.2M
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 77
- Grants FY2024
- 71
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 42%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $62,500
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $1,500,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 26 to 71
- FY2018 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 8
- Total assets, FY2024
- $76M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 42% of the organizations Square One Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 40% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.1M 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024still arriving | 72 | $6.9M | 31% |
| FY2023 | 71 | $5.1M | 42% |
| FY2022 | 53 | $3.7M | 57% |
| FY2021 | 26 | $2.5M | 27% |
| FY2020 | 36 | $1.9M | 53% |
| FY2019 | 30 | $717k | 30% |
| FY2018 | 30 | $1.0M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.
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, FY2018 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Chicago | $3,831,000 | 6 | 0% |
| William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc | $905,000 | 7 | 1% |
| National Louis University | $594,000 | 4 | 0% |
| Frameworks Institute | $550,000 | 2 | 4% |
| Uniting Voices | $392,400 | 4 | 3% |
| Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation | $359,518 | 6 | 2% |
| Kids First Chicago for Education | $340,500 | 5 | 3% |
| Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc | $330,500 | 6 | 3% |
| Reform for Illinois | $314,000 | 3 | 46% |
| Advance Illinois Nfp | $299,000 | 7 | 3% |
Show all 98 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 49 recipients with no EIN on record ($4.9M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Square One Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 2 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 93 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: Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Field Foundation of Illinois · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Circle of Service Foundation · Grand Victoria Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Woods Fund of Chicago
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Square One Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Square One 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 Square One Foundation
- How much does Square One Foundation give?
- Square One Foundation reported 77 grants totaling $7,200,500 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 26 and 71 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2023.
- What does Square One Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (37%), Philanthropy (14%), Civil Rights (12%).
- Who are Square One Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2018 to FY2024: University of Chicago ($3.8M), William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc ($905k), National Louis University ($594k).
- Does Square One Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 42% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Square One Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Square One Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Polk Bros Foundation Inc, Field Foundation of Illinois, Robert R McCormick Foundation.
- Where is Square One Foundation based?
- Square One Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Square One’s filings →