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Illinois · Private foundation

The Cynthia Elkins 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.

$751k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
41
Grants FY2024
37
Organizations funded FY2023
30%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$5,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$137,500
Organizations funded a year
19 to 37
FY2020 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
12
Total assets, FY2024
$287k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 30% of the organizations The Cynthia Elkins Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 3% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23
HealthHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsArts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationOther
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 arriving41$751k20%
FY202337$682k30%
FY202231$779k23%
FY202134$469k62%
FY202019$218kn/a
75% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$534kPublic Benefit$275kInternational$235kHuman Services$190kYouth Development$152kPhilanthropy$111kHealth$107kRecreation & Sports$100kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
WI
MI
NY
IN
CT
CA
CO
VA
DC
TX
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Cato Institute$275,00040%
American Friends of Magen David Adom$199,00050%
Brave Space Alliance$151,00052%
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum$140,00040%
Urban Initiatives Inc$139,00041%
The Art Center of Highland Park$105,00044%
One Tail at a Time Nfp$77,60051%
The Center for Enriched Living Inc$61,00051%
Nssra Foundation$58,00026%
Grace$52,0003n/a
Show all 35 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 31 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.3M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Cynthia Elkins Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCato Institute: $275,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetAmerican Friends of Magen David Adom: $199,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBrave Space Alliance: $151,000 over 5y, 1.9% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $140,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUrban Initiatives Inc: $139,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetThe Art Center of Highland Park: $105,000 over 4y, 3.8% of budgetOne Tail at a Time Nfp: $77,600 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetThe Center for Enriched Living Inc: $61,000 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetNssra Foundation: $58,000 over 2y, 6.5% of budgetJewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPat Tillman Foundation: $50,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetNavy Seal Foundation Inc: $42,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetBig Shoulders Fund: $35,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Nora Project: $35,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetInvest for Kids Inc: $25,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetOutreach with Lacrosse Schools: $15,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $14,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGuadalupe Center Inc: $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJesse White Tumbling Team Inc: $6,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetWestern Golf Association: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFriends of the Chicago River: $6,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCanopy Center Inc: $4,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetParkinson's Foundation Inc: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMichael Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBernie's Book Bank: $1,600 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEndeavor Health Clinical Operations: $1,250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPancreatic Cancer Action Network Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCoast Guard Foundation Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOperation Kindness: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLight of Love Ministry: $500 over 1y, 0.1% 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 31.

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.

Jewish Federation of Metropolitan ChicagoIL15.2× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Meg and Tim Callahan Family Foundation · First Bank Chicago Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Cynthia Elkins Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Cynthia Elkins Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Cynthia Elkins 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 Cynthia Elkins Foundation

How much does The Cynthia Elkins Foundation give?
The Cynthia Elkins Foundation reported 41 grants totaling $750,800 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 19 and 37 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
What does The Cynthia Elkins Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (18%), Public Benefit (9%), International (8%).
Who are The Cynthia Elkins Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: Cato Institute ($275k), American Friends of Magen David Adom ($199k), Brave Space Alliance ($151k).
Does The Cynthia Elkins Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 30% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Cynthia Elkins 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 Cynthia Elkins Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Meg and Tim Callahan Family Foundation, First Bank Chicago Foundation.
Where is The Cynthia Elkins Foundation based?
The Cynthia Elkins Foundation is based in IL.

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 67 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

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