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The Barr Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The Barr Fund

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.

$267k
Granted FY2023
85
Grants FY2023
13
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of The Barr Fund’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Schwab Charitable Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Barr Fund named its own grantees at scale: 56 organizations, $267k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

50
’20
61
’21
58
’22
56
’23
3
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0192% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Philanthropy$4.2MEducation$493kHealth$186kArts & Culture$140kAnimals$40kYouth Development$33kCrime & Legal$25kHuman Services$18kOther$0
02FY2023 · 85 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k77 grants · $127k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $140k
$1,500
Median grant
13
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDATION$35,000
LEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL$25,010
JEWISH UNITED FUND$20,000
U OF CHICAGO CROWN FAMILY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK$15,000
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION$15,000
RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$10,000
PROJECT EXPLORATION$10,000
UJA EMERGENCY FUND$10,000
SHEDD AQUARIUM$7,500
MANDEL LEGAL AID CLINIC$6,500
PROJECT EDUCATION PLUS$6,000
IRON DUKES ANNUAL FUND$5,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD$5,000
ETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOL$5,000
GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–23, $36k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 52% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%HOPE AND COMFORT: $2k → 7%METROWEST WOMEN'S FUND: $2k → 8%JEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER: $2k → 10%YUNNAN PROJECT HOPE FOR MINORITIES: $250 → 10%RED HOOK INITIATIVE: $1k → 20%HEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION: $3k → 17%HOPE AND COMFORT: $2k → 7%METROWEST WOMEN'S FUND: $2k → 8%JEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER: $2k → 10%HOPE AND COMFORT: $2k → 7%METROWEST WOMEN'S FUND: $2k → 8%JEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER: $2k → 10%GROSSMAN BURN FOUNDATION: $500 → 14%HOPE AND COMFORT: $1k → 7%JEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER: $1k → 10%JEWISH CENTER FOR JUSTICE: $250 → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO: $100 → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO: $100 → 14%CLEARBOOK: $5k → 14%CLEARBOOK: $5k → 14%JOURNEY CARE: $500 → 14%JOURNEY CARE: $500 → 14%CHICAGO FURNITURE BANK: $2k → 14%CHICAGO FURNITURE BANK: $750 → 14%CHICAGO FURNITURE BANK: $500 → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
VT
NH
MN
IL
NY
MA
WY
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
VA
MD
KS
TN
NC
DC
GA
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.0M · 79 repeat orgs$126k to everyone else

79 repeat relationships: 65 still active in FY2023, 14 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

79
41

Total granted

$1.0M
$83k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+37%
+63%

Still filing today

70%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 45% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesHealthCivil RightsRecreation & SportsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • PE
    PROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDATION
    4× · 2020–2023 · $150k · revenue +205%
  • RU
    Rush University Medical Center
    4× · 2020–2023 · $108k · revenue +30%
  • LC
    LEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL
    4× · 2020–2023 · $104k · revenue +37%

Funded once

  • CF
    CROWN FAMILY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
    one grant, 2022 · $15k
  • MF
    MATTHEW FRANK MD GENERAL GIFT FUND-STANFORD UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
  • CO
    Children of Fallen Patriots Foundationgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $6k · revenue +62%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
2
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
3
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
4
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
5
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
6
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
7
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
8
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
9
Fordham University

Fordham university, the jesuit university of new york, is committed to the discovery of wisdom and the transmission of learning, through research and through education of the highest quality. for more information, see schedule o.

Education
10
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
11
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
12
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Grant Park Orchestral Association; the most unlike its peers is Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy 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

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

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 99 of the 146 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
97/99
Grantees still filing
78/99
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $4,063,263 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC+3 more: $85,500 · PhilanthropyPROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $150,000 · EducationLEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL: $104,310 · EducationPROJECT EDUCATION PLUS: $31,000 · EducationILLINOIS NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: $20,000 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITY: $18,500 · EducationETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOL: $17,500 · Education+21 more: $72,180 · EducationNATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $32,500 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMIN: $30,000 · OtherMANDEL LEGAL AID CLINIC: $24,500 · OtherGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC: $17,000 · OtherU OF CHICAGO CROWN FAMILY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK: $15,000 · OtherCROWN FAMILY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK: $15,000 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOOD: $12,000 · Other+65 more: $164,100 · OtherRAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION: $49,000 · Arts & CulturePROJECT EXPLORATION: $32,500 · Arts & CultureChicago Humanities Festival: $12,000 · Arts & CultureGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $10,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM ASSOCIATES: $9,500 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC: $5,000 · Arts & Culture+12 more: $20,000 · Arts & CultureRush University Medical Center: $108,000 · HealthCitizens United for Research in Epilepsy: $6,000 · HealthDartmouth-Hitchcock Health: $6,000 · HealthHEARTSPRING INC: $5,000 · Health+7 more: $9,000 · HealthSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $37,500 · Animals+1 more: $500 · AnimalsCLEARBROOK: $10,000 · Human ServicesMETROWEST WOMEN'S FUND INC: $6,000 · Human ServicesJEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER INC: $5,500 · Human ServicesHOPE AND COMFORT INC: $5,500 · Human ServicesHEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC: $3,000 · Human ServicesCHICAGO FURNITURE BANK: $2,750 · Human Services+6 more: $3,200 · Human Services
Philanthropy$4,148,763Education$413,490Other$310,100Arts & Culture$138,000Health$134,000Animals$38,000Human Services$35,950

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $4,063,263 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $150,000 over 4y, 18% of budgetRush University Medical Center: $108,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL: $104,310 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $80,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetRAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION: $49,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $37,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPROJECT EXPLORATION: $32,500 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetNATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $32,500 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetPROJECT EDUCATION PLUS: $31,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetILLINOIS NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: $20,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $18,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOL: $17,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC: $17,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Humanities Festival: $12,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $11,600 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCLEARBROOK: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $10,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMUSEUM ASSOCIATES: $9,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCOMPASSION & CHOICES: $8,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University: $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetChildren of Fallen Patriots Foundation: $6,250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNORTH LAWNDALE COLLEGE PREPARATORY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL INC: $6,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMETROWEST WOMEN'S FUND INC: $6,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetMILLBROOK SCHOOL: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCitizens United for Research in Epilepsy: $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetDartmouth-Hitchcock Health: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWESTCOAST SPORTS ASSOCIATES INC: $6,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $5,950 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetJEANNE GEIGER CRISIS CENTER INC: $5,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INC: $5,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHOPE AND COMFORT INC: $5,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWINDWARD FUND: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC: $5,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHEARTSPRING INC: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WINDWARD SCHOOL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSUMMER SEARCH: $4,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC: $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTART EARLY: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWESTSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL: $3,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetRehabilitation Institute of Chicago: $3,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBowdoin College: $3,250 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLAKE FOREST ACADEMY: $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

The Chicago Community…John D and Catherine …Arie and Ida Crown Me…Motorola Solutions Fo…Jewish Federation of …Gs Donor Advised Phil…Cme Group FoundationDr Scholl FoundationRobert R McCormick Fo…The Sidley Austin Fou…AbbVie FoundationNational Philanthropi…
The Chicago Community TrustIL23.7× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Motorola Solutions Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Cme Group Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · The Sidley Austin Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Barr Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Barr Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 22%
  • Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center Inc: 40% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
  • Hope and Comfort Inc: 1% of income from government
  • The Epiphany School Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
24report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Barr Fund?

Find your warmest path to The Barr 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 146 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Barr’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home