· Private foundation
Tengelsen Family Foundation
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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k8 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $119k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $313k
- $250k+1 grant · $476k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BIG SHOULDERS FUND | $475,875 |
| SHIRLEY RYAN ABILITY LAB | $200,000 |
| BIG SHOULDERS FUND | $112,500 |
| WOLCOT SCHOOL | $43,000 |
| NAMI CHICAGO | $20,500 |
| PILOT LIGHT | $20,000 |
| SHIRLEY RYAN ABILITY LAB | $15,000 |
| MT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| BOYS HOPE GIRLS HOPE | $10,000 |
| LEO HIGH SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO YACHT CLUB | $2,500 |
| THE COLLECTIVE | $1,816 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| SHIRLEY RYAN ABILITY LAB | $1,000 |
| UNLV FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +60% since the first grant, against +24% for those funded once.
32 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 24 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BSBig Shoulders Fund8× · 2017–2025 · $2.4M · revenue +67%
- RIRehabilitation Institute of Chicago7× · 2019–2025 · $1.2M · revenue +33%
- NCNAMI Chicago9× · 2017–2025 · $207k · revenue +551%
Funded once
- KSKENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $260k · revenue +61%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $25k
- SFSALUDE FAMILY HEALTH CENTERone grant, 2020 · $25k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.
The team at kipp chicago schools is guided by a simple, yet powerful mission: to create a network of excellent schools in chicago that teach our students the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond, and to…
The Chicago School educates the next generation of change-makers in innovative theory and culturally competent practice to strengthen the integrated health of individuals, organizations, and communities.
Chicago scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities.
The mission of the university of chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.
The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
High jump is a tuition free, two-year enrichment program for talented and motivated middle school students with limited family income. the students attend classes for a five week session during the summers before 7th and 8th grade; as well…
Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…
As the largest association of independent schools, nais co-creates the future of education by uniting and empowering our community. we do this through thought leadership, research, creation and curation of resources, and direct…
Our mission is to strengthen and heal families and individuals from all walks of life through clinical service, education and research.
How this is measured
33 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 33 of the 70 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Big Shoulders Fund ↗
- Who funds Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ↗
- Who funds KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NAMI Chicago ↗
- Who funds WOLCOTT SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Big Green ↗
- Who funds PILOT LIGHT ↗
- Who funds DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION FOR CONSCIOUSNESS -BASED EDUCATION AND WORLD PEACE ↗
- Who funds PLAYWORKS EDUCATION ENERGIZED ↗
- Who funds THE THRESHOLDS ↗
- Who funds ALL STARS PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds SARETT NATURE CENTER ↗
- Who funds BEACON ACADEMY A MONTESSORI HIGH SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Purple Asparagus ↗
- Who funds THE COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER ↗
- Who funds HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds HISPANIC SCHOLARSHIP FUND ↗
- Who funds THE GAPLES INSTITUTE FOR INTEGRATIVE CARDIOLOGY ↗
- Who funds GREENWOOD PROJECT ↗
- Who funds CONTEXTOS NFP ↗
- Who funds LINK Unlimited Scholars ↗
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 · The Lumpkin Family Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Albert Pick Jr Fund · Fifth Third Chicagoland Foundation · Builders Vision Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · AbbVie Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Tengelsen Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Tengelsen Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Tengelsen Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Tengelsen Family 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.
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