· Private foundation
The Berkman 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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2021–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k25 grants · $21k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $76k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Jewish United Fund Metro Chicago | $32,110 |
| Am Shalom | $19,108 |
| Univ of Pennsylvania - Wharton Scho | $15,000 |
| Northwestern Memorial Foundation | $10,000 |
| Chicago Dancers United | $2,680 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| LSCC Educational Fund | $1,500 |
| Jewish Federation North America | $1,500 |
| Conway Farms Golf Foundation | $1,200 |
| Brain Trauma Foundation | $1,000 |
| Evans Scholarship Foundation | $1,000 |
| US Holocaust Museum | $1,000 |
| American Friends of Alyn Hospital | $1,000 |
| Illinois Holocaust Museum | $1,000 |
| OWLS Lacrosse | $1,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY21–25, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
22 repeat relationships — 20 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 7 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, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- CDChicago Dance Health Fund5× · 2021–2025 · $7k · revenue +1%
- OWOutreach with Lacrosse Schools5× · 2021–2025 · $5k · revenue +28%
- BTBREAKTHROUGH T1D2× · 2021–2022 · $4k · revenue +35%
Funded once
- JUJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGOgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $27k · revenue +33%
- BUBOSTON UNIVERSITY HILLEL INCone grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue +8%
- UOUniv of Penn Hillelone grant, 2024 · $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.
Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.
Federation amplifies our collective strength to make the world a better place for everyone. we assist people in need, impact chicagoans of all faiths; support israel and the jewish people worldwide; respond swiftly to crises; cultivate…
The university is composed of several colleges and schools providing undergraduate, graduate, professional and post-doctoral education and training and research and clinical programs.
Hadassah, the women's zionist organization of america, inc., a new york not-for-profit corporation ("hwzoa") enhances the health and lives of people in israel, the united states and worldwide through education, advocacy, women's…
The jewish federation of greater atlanta cares for, connects and strengthens our jewish community throughout greater atlanta, israel and the world.
To strengthen israel's future in these areas: 1)providing new immigrants with assistance in a few key areas: representing them as they navigate government ministries and assisting them with their challenges as new immigrants to israel.…
The jewish federation of greater philadelphia mobilizes financial and volunteer resources to create a bright future for jewish people everywhere. the jewish federation cares for those in need, combats antisemitism and global crises, and…
The jewish federation of greater washington (federation) envisions a connected and vibrant jewish community that cares for each other, fosters jewish learning and journeys, embraces jewish peoplehood and israel, and acts as a force for…
The weitzman national museum of american jewish history, on independence mall in philadelphia, presents educational programs and experiences that preserve, explore, and celebrate the history of jews in america. its purpose is to connect…
The organization's mission is to engage in non partisan analysis of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east, with special emphasis on the middle east peace process, and to present policymakers in the united states, in the region and in the…
The mission of the organization is to enrich the lives of jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the jewish people and the world.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is American Friends of Alyn Hospitalinc and the most unlike its peers is Helping Hands Network Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
29 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. 29 of the 57 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 TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds BOSTON UNIVERSITY HILLEL INC ↗
- Who funds Chicago Dance Health Fund ↗
- Who funds Highland Park Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds Outreach with Lacrosse Schools ↗
- Who funds The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds A Better Chicago ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF ALYN HOSPITALINC ↗
- Who funds The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds Invest for Kids Inc ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY ↗
- Who funds HELPING HANDS NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds BRAIN TRAUMA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP ↗
- Who funds THE LAMBS FARM INC ↗
- Who funds Sharsheret Inc ↗
- Who funds GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION INC ↗
- Who funds PKD Foundation ↗
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: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Sam I Am Foundation · Jarvis Foundation · 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 Berkman Family 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.
- Sharsheret Inc — 4% of income from government
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.