· Private foundation
The Bergman Foundation
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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2021–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k11 grants · $22k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $40k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GRACE CHICAGO CHURCH | $50,000 |
| MARWEN FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| UNITING VOICES | $10,000 |
| ARTS OF LIFE | $10,000 |
| A ESCOBAR | $10,000 |
| SHED NYC INC | $5,000 |
| NOVO MISSION INC | $5,000 |
| A DEFEO | $2,578 |
| PILOT LIGHT | $2,500 |
| ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $2,500 |
| INTONATION MUSIC WORKSHOP | $2,500 |
| ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS & WRITING | $870 |
| POETS HOUSE INC | $600 |
| NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION INC | $405 |
| TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW | $225 |
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 (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 75% 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.
8 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 9 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, 38% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $70k 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
- UVUNITING VOICES4× · 2021–2024 · $60k · revenue +43%
- TATHE ARTS OF LIFE INC4× · 2021–2024 · $55k · revenue +87%
- MFMarwen Foundation Inc3× · 2022–2024 · $30k · revenue +61%
Funded once
- TPTHE POETRY PROJECT LTDgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue ×28
- JSJ Seoone grant, 2023 · $10k
- LNL Newbernone grant, 2023 · $10k
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.
Wp theater is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting the work of women+ at every stage of their careers. for over four decades we have served as leaders of a global movement…
To foster the professional development of poets and writers, to promote communication throughout the literary community, and to help create an environment in which literature can be appreciated by the widest possible public.
The Literary Freedom Project creates free, open spaces for communities to engage with books through weekly discussions and presentations. Our programs promote literacy, celebrate the diverse cultures of the Bronx and NYC, and foster…
Artpace san antonio is a nonprofit residency program which supports texas, national, and international artists in the creation of new art. see schedule o for continuation.
Founded by former faculty, staff, and alumni of the columbia college chicago center for book and paper arts, the organizations purpose is to create a new home in chicagoland where artists, writers, readers, and other thoughtful people can…
The mission of the organization is to foster the development of creative individuals as writers and artists and to promote public appreciation of excellence in the literary and graphic arts by publishing a magazine containing fiction,…
Lookingglass theatre company is a national leader in the creation and presentation of innovative, cutting-edge theatrical work. lookingglass interweaves movement, circus arts and narrative in original and captivating ways. guided by an…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Poets House Inc and the most unlike its peers is Intonation Music Workshop. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 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. 13 of the 23 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 UNITING VOICES ↗
- Who funds THE ARTS OF LIFE INC ↗
- Who funds Marwen Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds THE POETRY PROJECT LTD ↗
- Who funds INTONATION MUSIC WORKSHOP ↗
- Who funds ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM INC ↗
- Who funds PILOT LIGHT ↗
- Who funds SHED NYC INC ↗
- Who funds ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS & WRITING PROGRAMS ↗
- Who funds POETS HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds POETRY SOCIETY OF AMERICA ↗
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 Poetry Foundation · The Academy of American Poets Inc · The Hyde and Watson Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Chicago Community Trust · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Bergman 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.