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Illinois · Private foundation

The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc

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.

$120k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
22
Grants FY2025
25
Organizations funded FY2024
4%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$2,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$20,000
Organizations funded a year
12 to 29
FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
7
Total assets, FY2025
$3.1M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 4% of the organizations The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24
PhilanthropyHuman ServicesHealthAnimalsHousing & ShelterEducationOther
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
FY2025still arriving22$120k23%
FY202425$92k4%
FY202329$114k10%
FY202223$117k13%
FY202123$90k35%
FY202021$99k86%
FY201819$133k58%
FY201712$84kn/a
83% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$136kPhilanthropy$103kHuman Services$87kRecreation & Sports$79kYouth Development$62kHealth$55kEnvironment$47kArts & Culture$41kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
WI
NV
NJ
CA
VA
KS
TN
HI
LA
GA
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 27 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 34 recipients with no EIN on record ($445k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 23 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMoose Charities Inc: $80,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetThe Wetlands Initiative: $47,000 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetRed Arrow Camp Foundation Inc: $42,000 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetCaldwell University Inc: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Center of Concern: $28,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetHome of the Sparrow Inc: $26,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetChicago District Golf Association: $25,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMake-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois Inc: $22,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetZoological Society of Kewaunee County Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 28% of budgetSt Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc: $10,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetLions Clubs International Foundation: $8,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetShriners Hospitals for Children: $7,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetK9 Companions Inc: $5,500 over 6y, 6.0% of budgetMisericordia Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnited Service Organizations of Illinois Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired: $3,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetIllinois Fire Safety Alliance: $3,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetIllinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge: $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMarine Toys for Tots Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No 7: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Zoological Society: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLincoln Park Zoological Society: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGlenview Park Foundation Inc: $400 over 2y, 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 23.

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 TrustIL12.4× affinity5 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · AbbVie Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc with peer funders

About The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc

How much does The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc give?
The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc reported 22 grants totaling $120,200 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 12 and 29 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (16%), Philanthropy (12%), Human Services (10%).
Who are The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Moose Charities Inc ($80k), The Wetlands Initiative ($47k), Red Arrow Camp Foundation Inc ($42k).
Does The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 4% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc 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 Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, AbbVie Foundation, Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc.
Where is The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc based?
The Donald F and Elizabeth Gardner Foundation Inc 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 62 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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