· 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k23 grants · $79k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $287k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $385k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $137,500 |
| ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM | $92,000 |
| AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADO | $55,000 |
| JEWISH UNITED FUND | $50,000 |
| UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM | $50,000 |
| URBAN INICIATIVES | $40,000 |
| NSSRA FOUNDATION | $40,000 |
| BRAVE SPACE ALLIANCE | $38,000 |
| LEAP | $36,000 |
| ONE TAIL AT A TIME | $28,000 |
| THE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK | $20,000 |
| PAT TILLMAN FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| BIG SHOULDERS FUND | $14,000 |
| CHICAGO FOOD DIPOSITORY | $14,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION | $12,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $324k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 97% 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
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
36 repeat relationships: 33 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 8 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, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $65k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CICATO INSTITUTE4× · 2020–2023 · $275k · revenue +93%
- AFAMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM5× · 2020–2024 · $199k · revenue +198%
- BSBRAVE SPACE ALLIANCE5× · 2020–2024 · $151k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- IIHMECone grant, 2021 · $36k
- BSBUTTERFIELD SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMone grant, 2021 · $18k
- CICOMMUNITY IN SCHOOLone grant, 2020 · $10k
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 GI Research Foundation works to treat, prevent, and cure digestive diseases. In collaboration with the physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Digestive Diseases Center, we fund innovative clinical and laboratory…
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.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
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…
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 Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.
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…
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
Provide pediatric and subspecialty surgical, research, and educational services.
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.
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…
How this is measured
33 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 33 of the 67 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
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 CATO INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM ↗
- Who funds BRAVE SPACE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗
- Who funds URBAN INITIATIVES INC ↗
- Who funds THE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK ↗
- Who funds ONE TAIL AT A TIME NFP ↗
- Who funds THE CENTER FOR ENRICHED LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds NSSRA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds PAT TILLMAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NAVY SEAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Big Shoulders Fund ↗
- Who funds THE NORA PROJECT ↗
- Who funds Invest for Kids Inc ↗
- Who funds Outreach with Lacrosse Schools ↗
- Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
- Who funds Highland Park Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds Guadalupe Center Inc ↗
- Who funds JESSE WHITE TUMBLING TEAM INC ↗
- Who funds WESTERN GOLF ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE CHICAGO RIVER ↗
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: 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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Cynthia Elkins Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Cynthia Elkins Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Guadalupe Center Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
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.
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