Illinois · Private foundation
Stearns Family Charitable Fund
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $233k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 27
- Grants FY2025
- 27
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 22%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $2,500
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $107,040
- Organizations funded a year
- 25 to 32
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 7
- Total assets, FY2025
- $2.3M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 22% of the organizations Stearns Family Charitable Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 8% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k 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 | 26 | $233k | 8% |
| FY2024 | 27 | $154k | 22% |
| FY2023 | 27 | $152k | 22% |
| FY2022 | 32 | $180k | 25% |
| FY2021 | 29 | $172k | 34% |
| FY2020 | 30 | $133k | 30% |
| FY2019 | 27 | $129k | 37% |
| FY2018 | 25 | $68k | 44% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 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, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Field Museum of Natural History | $226,550 | 9 | 0% |
| Northwestern University | $210,714 | 7 | 0% |
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago | $131,700 | 7 | 0% |
| Hilton Head Christian Academy | $85,479 | 6 | 0% |
| North Shore Country Day School | $52,500 | 7 | 0% |
| North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School Inc | $46,250 | 8 | 0% |
| Clearbrook | $45,000 | 7 | 0% |
| Advance Illinois Nfp | $22,500 | 5 | 0% |
| Accelerate Institute | $22,000 | 5 | 1% |
| Endeavor Health Clinical Operations | $22,000 | 5 | 0% |
Show all 51 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 34 recipients with no EIN on record ($243k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Stearns Family Charitable Fund 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: The Chicago Community Trust · Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Satter Foundation · Lavin Family Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Frank Family Foundation · The Canning Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Stearns Family Charitable Fund?
Find your warmest path to Stearns Family Charitable Fund 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 Stearns Family Charitable Fund
- How much does Stearns Family Charitable Fund give?
- Stearns Family Charitable Fund reported 27 grants totaling $232,589 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 25 and 32 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Stearns Family Charitable Fund fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (34%), Arts & Culture (23%), Youth Development (11%).
- Who are Stearns Family Charitable Fund's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Field Museum of Natural History ($227k), Northwestern University ($211k), Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago ($132k).
- Does Stearns Family Charitable Fund fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 22% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Stearns Family Charitable Fund 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 Stearns Family Charitable Fund?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation, Robert R McCormick Foundation.
- Where is Stearns Family Charitable Fund based?
- Stearns Family Charitable Fund is based in IL.
Play a game based on Stearns Family’s filings →