· Public charity
The Bear Foundation
The organization raises charitable funds and for other organizations recognized as exempt.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 7 grants below total $161,600 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $173,095 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $11,495 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 $10k4 grants · $32k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $70k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ASCENSION ILLINOIS FOUNDATION | $60,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CHICAGO | $45,000 |
| SWEDISH COVENANT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| NORTHWEST COMMUNITY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $9,500 |
| MIDWEST HEALTH FOUNDATION | $8,500 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $7,500 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS | $6,100 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 66% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
7 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 5% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $154k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- PHPRESENCE HEALTH FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES3× · 2017–2019 · $367k
- NMNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE4× · 2018–2024 · $72k
- GHGLENOAKS HOSPITAL FOUNDATION2× · 2018–2019 · $35k · revenue -75%
Funded once
- AFAMITA FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $77k
- ABALEXIAN BROTHERS HEALTH SYSTEMone grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue -14%
- RURESURRECTION UNIVERSITY FDNone grant, 2018 · $15k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Edward Hospital follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."
The elmhurst memorial healthcare group follows the mission of endeavor health (f/k/a ns-ee holdings). the mission of endeavor health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." central to this mission is a commitment to…
Endeavor Health Medical Group (EHMG) follows the mission of Endeavor Health. The mission of Endeavor Health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." Central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and…
NORTHWEST COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE follows the mission of Endeavor Health. The mission of Endeavor Health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." Central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and…
Elmhurst memorial healthcare follows the mission of endeavor health. the mission of endeavor health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and services…
NORTHWEST COMMUNITY HOSPITAL follows the mission of Endeavor Health (F/K/A NS-EE Holdings). The mission of Endeavor Health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." Central to this mission is a commitment to providing…
Endeavor Health Clinical Operations follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."
Methodist Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health regardless of a patient's ability to pay.
Cumberland Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health, regardless of the patient's ability to pay.
Edward foundation follows the mission of endeavor health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."
CH-Franklin is a charitable organization which exists to meet the health needs of individuals within the communities it serves.
Assist banner health complete its mission to make health care easier so life can be better by providing integrated & coordinated care & population health management.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Glenoaks Hospital Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Fitzgerald Family Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
18 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 22 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds PRESENCE HEALTH FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES ↗
- Who funds Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare ↗
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds GLENOAKS HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ALEXIAN BROTHERS HEALTH SYSTEM ↗
- Who funds Swedish Covenant Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds Centegra Health System Foundation ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds CITY OF HOPE ↗
- Who funds FITZGERALD FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CASTING FOR RECOVERY ↗
- Who funds Bolingbrook Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds Resurrection University ↗
- Who funds Northwest Community Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds BUILDON INC ↗
- Who funds MIDWEST HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Swedish Covenant Health ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 The Bear Foundation 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.
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.