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· Community foundation

Sterling Rock Falls Community Trust

To create an opportunity for donors to participate in scholarships and projects that improve the quality of life within our local communities.

$491k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$183k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182024.

Human Services$253kArts & Culture$240kPhilanthropy$110kHealth$39kEducation$20kFood & Nutrition$15k
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 7 grants below total $272,598 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $490,558 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $217,960 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $12k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $78k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $183k
$19,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WOODLAWN ARTS ACADEMY$183,000
UNITED WAY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY$24,500
STERLING ROCK FALLS FAMILY YMCA$21,250
CGH HEALTH FOUNDATION$19,500
STERLING-ROCK FALLS CHILD CARE$12,500
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES$6,250
STERLING-RF HISTORICAL SOCIETY$5,598
02The need
03

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 (FY24–24, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%STERLING-ROCK FALLS CHILD CARE: $13k → 13%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein 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 — 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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$612k · 6 repeat orgs$65k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +20% since the first grant, against -21% for the ones you funded once.

6 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
5

Total granted

$612k
$52k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+20%
-21%

Still filing today

100%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $13k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationPhilanthropyFood & NutritionHuman 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

  • WA
    WOODLAWN ARTS ACADEMY
    3× · 2018–2024 · $208k · revenue +34%
  • CH
    CGH Health Foundation
    2× · 2023–2024 · $39k · revenue +20%
  • LS
    LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF ILLINOIS
    3× · 2022–2024 · $31k · revenue +32%

Funded once

  • WC
    WHITESIDE COUNTY SENIOR CENTER
    one grant, 2019 · $18k · revenue -21%
  • SV
    Sauk Valley Foodbankgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +33%
  • CO
    CITY OF STERLING
    one grant, 2020 · $8k

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.

1
Southern Illinois Community Foundation

To foster and encourage private philanthropic giving to improve communities of the Southern Illinois Region by connecting charitable donors with worthy causes and to build endowment funds that will support those worthy causes in perpetuity.

Philanthropy
2
Sterling Area Health Center

Combining leadership and teamwork to provide caring, high quality, efficient, and affordable primary health care for all segments of the community.

Health
3
Woodstock Christian Life Services

To provide healthcare services in a nursing home facility, housing for the elderly, and daycare services for children

Human Services
4
Swedish Historical Society of Rockford

Preservation of swedish historical structure, culture and artifacts through the operations of a museum and cultural center.

Arts & Culture
5
Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Inc

To provide access to high quality, comprehensive, primary healthcare in cook county to all users, regardless of financial ability to pay for service.

Health
6
Starved Rock Country Community Foundation

The Starved Rock Country Community Foundation (SRCCF) is a grant-making public charity dedicated to improving the lives of people in LaSalle, Bureau and Putnam Counties. Our goal is to bring together the financial resources of individuals,…

Philanthropy
7
South Lake Union Chamber of Commerc

The slu chamber was formed to drive, expand, and preserve the economic, civic, and cultural development of the south lake union area for the prosperity of its people.

Community Improvement
8
Senior Services Center of Will County

To enhance the quality of life of the older person, support theirindependence, encourage their involvement in the community, provide analternative to loneliness and isolation and provide a community focalpoint where older persons come…

9
Walworth-Seely Public Library

The mission of the Walworth-Seely Public Library is to build community by engaging, educating and enriching the lives of our patrons.

Education
10
Kishwaukee United Way

To improve lives by sharing community resources

Philanthropy
11
North Shore Health Care Foundation

To expand equitable health care and healthy living in Cook County and champion solutions through funding, education and advocacy.

Health
12
Siouxland Community Foundation

The siouxland community foundation is a trusted organization that connects people who care with causes that matter by providing a means to receive gifts and distribute grants in response to community needs.

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and the most unlike its peers is Sterling Rock Falls Day Care Agency Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 12 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/11
Grantees still filing
4/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

STERLING-ROCK FALLS FAMILY YMCA — $192,000 · OtherSTERLING-ROCK FALLS FAMILY YMCACGH Health Foundation — $39,000 · OtherCGH Health FoundationSTERLING-ROCK FALLS HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $31,764 · OtherSTERLING-ROCK FALLS HISTORICAL SOCIETYLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF ILLINOIS — $31,250 · OtherLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF ILLINOISWHITESIDE COUNTY SENIOR CENTER — $17,500 · OtherWHITESIDE COUNTY SENIOR CENTER+2 more — $14,125 · OtherWOODLAWN ARTS ACADEMY — $207,937 · Arts & CultureWOODLAWN ARTS ACADEMYUNITED WAY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY — $110,125 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY OF WHIT…Sauk Valley Foodbank — $15,000 · Food & NutritionSTERLING ROCK FALLS DAY CARE AGENCY INC — $12,500 · Human ServicesLITERACY IS FUN FOR EVERYONE INC — $5,500 · Education
Other$325,639Arts & Culture$207,937Philanthropy$110,125Food & Nutrition$15,000Human Services$12,500Education$5,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetWOODLAWN ARTS ACADEMY — $207,937 over 3y, 19% of budgetSTERLING-ROCK FALLS FAMILY YMCA — $192,000 over 7y, 1.6% of budgetUNITED WAY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY — $110,125 over 5y, 5.4% of budgetCGH Health Foundation — $39,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetSTERLING-ROCK FALLS HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $31,764 over 5y, 13% of budgetLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF ILLINOIS — $31,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWHITESIDE COUNTY SENIOR CENTER — $17,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetSauk Valley Foodbank — $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSTERLING ROCK FALLS DAY CARE AGENCY INC — $12,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetSAUK VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $6,625 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLITERACY IS FUN FOR EVERYONE INC — $5,500 over 1y, 7.5% of budget
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.

Dillon FoundationIL20× affinity7 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Dillon Foundation · United Way of Whiteside County · Quad Cities Community Foundation · Do It Best Foundation Inc · Kunes Family Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 organization Sterling Rock Falls Community Trust 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. 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

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Sterling Rock Falls Community Trust?

    Find your warmest path to Sterling Rock Falls Community Trust 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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