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Wisconsin · Private foundation

The Comer 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.

$198k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
3
Grants FY2024
3
Organizations funded FY2023
67%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$50,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$147,879
Organizations funded a year
2 to 14
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
2
Total assets, FY2024
$11M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 67% of the organizations The Comer Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $750 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
HealthArts & CultureEnvironmentInternationalEducationFood & NutritionOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving3$198k100%
FY20233$151k67%
FY20224$172k100%
FY20212$36k50%
FY20204$35k75%
FY20197$50k43%
FY201814$44k79%
FY20178$58kn/a
98% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$237kScience & Tech$148kYouth Development$106kArts & Culture$88kEducation$50kHealth$42kInternational$40kCommunity Improvement$22kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
OH
NJ
CA
MO
MD
DC

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 27 grantees

Plus 8 recipients with no EIN on record ($48k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Comer Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 24 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTeens Take on Climate Inc: $235,000 over 2y, 74% of budgetComer Science & Education Foundation: $147,879 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetGary Comer Youth Center Inc: $106,499 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetUniversity of Washington Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDirect Relief: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHyde Park Art Center: $30,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFacets Film Forum: $25,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetThe Art Institute of Chicago: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNational Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directorsdba Nastad: $10,642 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMusic and Dance Theater Chicago Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUrban Growers Collective Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetThe Ghetto Film School Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPeople's Harm Reduction Alliance: $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetField Museum of Natural History: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetForefront: $1,113 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Cancer Society Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLegal Action of Wisconsin Inc: $310 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRehabilitation Institute of Chicago: $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAIDS Foundation of Chicago: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNew Eyes for the Needy Inc: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKansas City CARE Clinic: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHoward Brown Health Center: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 24.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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 TrustIL22.1× affinity10 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · AIDS United · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

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.

Compare The Comer Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Comer Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Comer 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.

About The Comer Foundation

How much does The Comer Foundation give?
The Comer Foundation reported 3 grants totaling $198,189 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 2 and 14 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does The Comer Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (32%), Science & Tech (20%), Youth Development (14%).
Who are The Comer Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Teens Take on Climate Inc ($235k), Comer Science & Education Foundation ($148k), Gary Comer Youth Center Inc ($106k).
Does The Comer Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 67% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Comer Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Comer Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, AIDS United, National Philanthropic Trust.
Where is The Comer Foundation based?
The Comer Foundation is based in WI.

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 35 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Comer’s filings →

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