· Private foundation
The Dick 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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $12k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $169k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $47,000 |
| KNOX COLLEGE | $35,000 |
| RUSH-PRESBYTERIAN MEDICAL CENTER | $25,000 |
| LAKE FOREST COLLEGE | $15,000 |
| THE MORTON ARBORETUM | $15,000 |
| GORTON COMMUNITY CENTER | $12,000 |
| LAKE FOREST OPEN LANDS | $10,000 |
| HURON MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| LAKE FOREST LIBRARY | $5,000 |
| HISTORY CENTER OF LAKE FOREST | $5,000 |
| HADLEY SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND | $1,000 |
| NORTH CHICAGO COMMUNITY PARTNERS | $1,000 |
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 (FY19–25, $77k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
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 +35% since the first grant, against +29% for those funded once.
26 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 15 since wound down; 1 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, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- KCKNOX COLLEGE7× · 2019–2025 · $162k · revenue +10%
- TMTHE MORTON ARBORETUM7× · 2019–2025 · $103k · revenue +103%
Lake Forest College7× · 2019–2025 · $85k · revenue +58%
Funded once
- MHMISS HALL'S SCHOOL INCone grant, 2022 · $4k · revenue -3%
- LFLAKE FOREST HISTORICAL SOCIETYone grant, 2019 · $2k
- RFROYAL FAMILY KIDS CAMPone grant, 2019 · $2k
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 Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.
Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…
Lake forest academy strives to embody in its practices - and to cultivate in its students -excellence of character, scholarship, citizenship, and responsibility.
Arbor research collaborative for health is committed to improving patient care through research that shapes medical policies and practice. in particular, arbor research conducts health outcomes research on chronic disease and end-stage…
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
Natural History Institute is organized to provide leadership and resources for a revitalized practice of natural history that integrates art, science, and humanities to promote the health and well-being of humans and the rest of the…
To support healthy communities and a healthy earth, the institute for conservation leadership strengthens leaders, organizations, coalitions and networks.
Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
The broad mission of the ASCSA has remained constant over its distinguished history: teaching research archaeological exploration publication and dissemination of research. Founded in 1881 the ASCSA provides graduate students and scholars…
Be a catalyst! Ignite our community's passion for nature and science.
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 34 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 KNOX COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE MORTON ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds Lake Forest College ↗
- Who funds LAKE FOREST OPEN LANDS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Gorton Community Center ↗
- Who funds Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ↗
- Who funds ADLAI STEVENSON CENTER ON DEMOCRACY ↗
- Who funds Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation ↗
- Who funds History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff ↗
- Who funds HADLEY INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED ↗
- Who funds North Chicago Community Partners ↗
- Who funds MISS HALL'S SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds ELAWA FARM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds LAKE FOREST COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL ↗
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: The Chicago Community Trust · Clarks Fork Foundation · The Buchanan Family Foundation · Hunter Family Foundation · Hedberg Foundation Inc · Butler Family Foundation · Hunter Family Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Anne Hunting Foundation · Jay Whipple Family Foundation · Keystone Charitable Foundation · Little Orchard Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Dick Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Dick Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Dick Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Dick Family 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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