· Private foundation
The Foster G McGaw Educational 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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k6 grants · $28k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $27k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DAVIDSON COLLEGE | $27,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $7,500 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $7,500 |
| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA | $5,000 |
| STAIBDANCE | $3,500 |
| BRAVO WAUKEGAN | $3,000 |
| BATES DANCE FESTIVAL | $1,500 |
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 (FY24–24, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 21% of The Foster G McGaw Educational Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 60% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 48%.
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 +41% since the first grant, against +40% for those funded once.
5 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 3 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, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Northwestern University9× · 2017–2025 · $297k · revenue +41%
Davidson College5× · 2018–2025 · $60k · revenue +52%
University of Chicago3× · 2019–2025 · $13k · revenue +25%
Funded once
- EUEMORY UNIVERSTIYone grant, 2017 · $50k
Lake Forest Collegegraduatedone grant, 2020 · $27k · revenue +50%- CCLEARBROOKone grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue +10%
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.
Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.
Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
Education and Research
Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 18 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 Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds Davidson College ↗
- Who funds Lake Forest College ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds CLEARBROOK ↗
- Who funds PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds VAIL FAMILY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BRAVO WAUKEGAN ↗
- Who funds NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO AIDS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF GREATER CHICAGO ↗
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Foster G McGaw Educational Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Foster G McGaw Educational Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Foster G McGaw Educational Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Foster G McGaw Educational 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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