· Private foundation
The George a Bates Memorial Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k8 grants · $150k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE HILL SCHOOL | $100,000 |
| OAKEN ACRES WILDLIFE CENTER | $100,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA | $25,000 |
| TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| FURRY FRIENDS | $25,000 |
| WINNETKA COMMUNITY CENTER | $20,000 |
| HOME FOR OUR TROOPS | $20,000 |
| PAWS CHICAGO | $15,000 |
| CHEETAH CONSERVATION FUND | $10,000 |
| SAVE-A-PET | $10,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 86% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +11% since the first grant, against -4% for the ones you funded once.
18 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 11 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; $55k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- OAOAKEN ACRES WILDLIFE CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $665k · revenue +39% · 40% of their budget
- IWINFANT WELFARE SOCIETY OF CHICAGO6× · 2017–2022 · $288k · revenue +31%
- THTHE HILL SCHOOL3× · 2023–2025 · $225k · revenue +11%
Funded once
- HFHOME FOR OUR TROOPS AKA HFOT USAone grant, 2023 · $35k
- CCCHEETAH CONSERVATION FUND AKA CCFone grant, 2023 · $20k
- HSHUMANE SOCIETY OF GREATER JUPITER AKA FURRY FRIENDSone grant, 2023 · $20k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
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…
Animal care sanctuary's lifesaving mission as a no kill organization envisions a community that promotes turning compassion into action for companion animals by: 1.) adopting healthy pet companions into loving homes. 2.) promoting the…
A champion for animals since 1967, PAWS is a nationally recognized leader - rehabilitating injured and orphaned wildlife, sheltering and adopting homeless cats and dogs, and educating people to make a better world for animals and people.
Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…
IFAWs strategy focuses on improving the welfare of individual animals and the conservation status of wildlife populations in priority habitats through on-the-ground efforts community engagement and global advocacy. Our dual emphasis on…
The mission of the akc canine health foundation, inc. is to fund, advance, and communicate canine health research and science through knowledge and discovery.
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
The friends are dedicated to the rescue, protection, and adoption of companion animals in need while inspiring the human-animal bond. we meet our mission by:-saving 100% of healthy and treatable animals.-providing high-quality animal care…
Chicago canine rescue foundation finds permanent homes for homeless dogs in our community with a specific emphasis on assisting the most vulnerable animals, who without our help, would have no other options. while in our care, they are…
Reduce the euthanasia rate of healthy and adoptable animals and improve the lives of companion animals by finding permanent homes for animals in need, providing support to communities who do not have access to humane organizations,…
To be a safe haven and human voice for all animals in need.
To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Homes for Our Troops Inc and the most unlike its peers is The Hope Light Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 42 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
21 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 34 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds OAKEN ACRES WILDLIFE CENTER ↗
- Who funds INFANT WELFARE SOCIETY OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds THE HILL SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE HOPE LIGHT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SKAGGS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds POSHARD FOUNDATION FOR ABUSED CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds BREHM PREPARATORY SCHOOL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS INC ↗
- Who funds PAWS CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds Cheetah Conservation Fund ↗
- Who funds FOX VALLEY WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds K9S FOR WARRIORS INC ↗
- Who funds BREHM PREPARATORY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds LAKE FOREST ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds GROTON SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds The Anti-Cruelty Society ↗
- Who funds SAVE-A-PET INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Network for Good · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The George a Bates Memorial Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- K9S for Warriors Inc — 0% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.