· Private foundation
The Canning 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, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k8 grants · $27k
- $10k–50k19 grants · $345k
- $50k–250k17 grants · $2.2M
- $250k+5 grants · $4.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BIG SHOULDERS FUND | $1,739,569 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE | $1,506,440 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $475,644 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE | $399,356 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $250,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $200,000 |
| HARPER COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| CHICAGO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY | $200,000 |
| DENISON UNIVERSITY | $200,000 |
| DUKE UNIVERSITY | $199,999 |
| MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC | $150,000 |
| HOPE EDUCATION AND OUTREACH OF ST SABINA | $150,000 |
| BIG SHOULDERS FUND | $112,500 |
| CASEY'S SAFE HAVEN HOLISTIC HORSE RESCUE AND SANCTUARY | $100,172 |
| THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of those 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 7% of The Canning Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 84% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 44%.
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 +23% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.
103 repeat relationships: 31 still active in FY2025, 72 since wound down; 15 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, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.4M 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 Fund6× · 2020–2025 · $7.5M · revenue +67%
- WPWINGS PROGRAM INC4× · 2020–2023 · $1.3M · revenue +122%
Northwestern University4× · 2020–2025 · $975k · revenue +33%
Funded once
- CSCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATERgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $200k · revenue +108%
- TTTIMELINE THEATREone grant, 2021 · $200k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $141k
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 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 chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
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…
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
Uchicago medicine network, inc. supports and encourages health and human service by providing support, directly or indirectly to ingalls memorial hospital, the university of chicago medical center, and other related tax-exempt…
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
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…
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.
The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.
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.
To spark curiosity and creativity in all young children through positive, play-based learning experiences.
How this is measured
137 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. 137 of the 204 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
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ↗
- Who funds WINGS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds Northwest Community Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds PAWS CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds DEPAUL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO BASEBALL AND EDUCATIONAL ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds YOUTH SERVICES OF GLENVIEWNORTHBROOK ↗
- Who funds Chicago Zoological Society ↗
- Who funds UCAN ↗
- Who funds Accelerate Institute ↗
- Who funds SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ↗
- Who funds MARINE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds DENISON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ↗
- Who funds EMPOWER ILLINOIS ↗
- Who funds LET IT BE US ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STEVENS POINT FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
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: Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Circle of Service Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · Lavin Family Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Motorola Solutions Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Canning Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Canning Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Interaction Inc: 70% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Canning Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Canning 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.
Play a game based on Canning’s filings →