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· Private foundation

The Grainger 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.

$17M
Granted FY2023
118
Grants FY2023
17
States reached
$2.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02Your edgeRead
03Your fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0195% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.

Education$19MPhilanthropy$18MArts & Culture$6.5MHealth$5.3MReligion$1.7MEnvironment$1.7MAnimals$1.0MScience & Tech$1.0MOther$0
02FY2023 · 118 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 118 grants below total $14,913,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $16,693,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,780,000 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k14 grants · $70k
  • $10k–50k70 grants · $1.5M
  • $50k–250k19 grants · $1.6M
  • $250k+15 grants · $12M
$25,000
Median grant
17
States reached
$172M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Rush University Medical Center$2,000,000
University of Illinois Foundation$2,000,000
The Geneva Foundation of Presbyterian Homes$1,061,000
Kenilworth Union Church$1,000,000
Miami University$1,000,000
Lincoln Park Zoo$1,000,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology$600,000
National Ability Center$500,000
National Academy of Engineering Fund$500,000
Northern Illinois Food Bank$500,000
Kenilworth Union Church$500,000
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital$300,000
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center 1871$250,000
Chicago Botanic Garden$250,000
mHUB$250,000
02Your edge
repeat funding

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.

51%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$29M · 68 repeat orgs$28M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +21% since the first grant, against +14% for the ones you funded once.

68 repeat relationships — 68 still active in FY2023, 0 since wound down; 39 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

68
31

Total granted

$29M
$22M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+14%

Still filing today

85%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5.9M went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23
EducationHealthArts & CultureHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentPhilanthropyOther

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

  • TA
    THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
    2× · 2022–2023 · $5.1M · revenue +12%
  • RU
    Rush University Medical Center
    2× · 2022–2023 · $2.0M · revenue +6%
  • EF
    Erie Family Health Foundation Inc
    2× · 2022–2023 · $1.9M · revenue +48%

Funded once

  • CC
    CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $9.8M
  • FC
    Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
    one grant, 2022 · $4.9M
  • YU
    Yale University
    one grant, 2022 · $2.5M

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

03Your field

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.

1
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.

—
2
Illinois College

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…

Education
3
Chicago Public Education Fund

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.

Education
4
Uchicago Medicine Network Inc

Uchicago medicine network, inc. supports and encourages health and human service by providing support, directly or indirectly to ingalls memorial hospital, the university of chicago medical center, and other related tax-exempt…

Health
5
The University of Chicago Charter School Corporation

To Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.

Education
6
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
7
National Opinion Research Center

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…

Social Science
8
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

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.

Education
9
Legal Aid Chicago

At legal aid chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental…

Crime & Legal
10
The Chicago Bar Foundation

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.

Education
11
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
12
Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Lake County Inc and the most unlike its peers is Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity Hospital SystemsEnvironmental Advocacy and …Youth Sports ProgramsFood Pantries and AssistanceCommunity FoundationsFaith-Based Senior LivingChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Government Accountability &…Faith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Addiction & Mental Health T…Local History MuseumsChristian Outreach Ministri…Affordable Housing Construc…Education Equity InitiativesVeteran Support ServicesCommunity Arts CentersChildhood Cancer SupportDomestic Violence and Sexua…Youth Development CentersDevelopmental Disabilities …United Way AffiliatesAnimal Rescue and ShelterCommunity Literacy TutoringFaith-Based Homeless Servic…School Parent-Teacher Organ…Immigrant and Latino Integr…Community Theater CompaniesCivil Legal ServicesGirls Stem Education Progra…Public School District Foun…Classical Music OrchestrasPublic Library SupportCollege Foundation Support
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 39 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%4%<5yr13%7%5–10yr18%17%10–20yr15%21%20–35yr14%18%35–55yr22%33%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%0%<5yr13%11%5–10yr18%7%10–20yr15%4%20–35yr14%25%35–55yr22%53%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.9% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.9%1/117
the rest of the field
12%
8,890/72,242

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.

03the grantee network

110 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. 110 of the 142 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
109/110
Grantees still filing
77/110
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $9,795,600 · OtherCHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONFidelity Charitable Gift Fund — $4,897,800 · OtherFidelity Charitable Gift FundYale University — $2,500,000 · OtherYale UniversityKENILWORTH UNION CHURCH — $1,620,000 · OtherKENILWORTH UNION CHURCHMIAMI UNIVERSITY — $1,000,000 · OtherPreservation Fdn of Lk Cty Forest Preserv — $1,000,000 · Other+76 more — $6,138,000 · Other+76 moreUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $9,987,168 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATIONTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $5,051,121 · EducationTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGOUniversity of Illinois Foundation — $2,010,000 · EducationUniversity of Illinois FoundationTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY — $1,000,000 · EducationLake Forest College — $1,000,000 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology — $900,000 · Education+14 more — $610,000 · EducationRush University Medical Center — $2,010,000 · HealthErie Family Health Foundation Inc — $1,900,000 · HealthTHE JOSSELYN CENTER NFP — $200,000 · Health+12 more — $385,000 · HealthGENEVA FOUNDATION OF PRESBYTERIAN HOMES — $3,086,000 · Philanthropy+6 more — $281,750 · PhilanthropyMUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC — $1,000,000 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $100,000 · Arts & CultureELAWA FARM FOUNDATION — $55,000 · Arts & CultureFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $50,000 · Arts & CultureNAVY SEAL FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureRagdale Foundation — $50,000 · Arts & Culture+7 more — $100,000 · Arts & CultureLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $1,000,000 · Animals+1 more — $10,000 · AnimalsNATIONAL ABILITY CENTER — $600,000 · Recreation & SportsUNITED STATES OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC FOUNDATION — $160,000 · Recreation & Sports+1 more — $10,000 · Recreation & Sports
Other$26,951,400Education$20,558,289Health$4,495,000Philanthropy$3,367,750Arts & Culture$1,405,000Animals$1,010,000Recreation & Sports$770,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $9,987,168 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $5,051,121 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetGENEVA FOUNDATION OF PRESBYTERIAN HOMES — $3,086,000 over 2y, 17% of budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation — $2,010,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetRush University Medical Center — $2,010,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetErie Family Health Foundation Inc — $1,900,000 over 2y, 7.5% of budgetTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY — $1,000,000 over 1y, 6.9% of budgetLake Forest College — $1,000,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetMUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC — $1,000,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $1,000,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology — $900,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ABILITY CENTER — $600,000 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK — $570,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetNATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING FUND — $500,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $260,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMHUB — $250,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetChicagoland Entrepreneurial Center — $250,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetTHE JOSSELYN CENTER NFP — $200,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetMercy Corps — $200,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALIGHT — $200,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED STATES OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC FOUNDATION — $160,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetIEEE FOUNDATION INC — $150,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetThe Beacon Place NFP — $150,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetYOUTH AND FAMILY COUNSELING — $140,000 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetTHE NIGHT MINISTRY — $100,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetARDEN SHORE CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES — $100,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF FISHER HOUSE - ILLINOIS INC — $100,000 over 2y, 16% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetHOMES FOR OUR TROOPS INC — $100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNORTH CHICAGO PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $87,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetGROWING HEALTHY PEOPLE — $85,000 over 2y, 76% of budgetUNITED WAY OF LAKE COUNTY INC — $80,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetCOLLEGE BOUND OPPORTUNITIES — $75,000 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetSONGS BY HEART FOUNDATION — $75,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetNICASA NFP — $65,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetElyssas Mission NFP — $55,000 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetGREAT LAKES ADAPTIVE SPORTS ASSOCIATION — $55,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetGPF FOUNDATION — $55,000 over 2y, 24% of budgetELAWA FARM FOUNDATION — $55,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetHistory Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff — $50,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetMOSAIC HOUSE MINISTRIES — $50,000 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY LAKE COUNTY — $50,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetNorth Chicago Community Partners — $50,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetOPENLANDS — $50,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE LAKE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

John and Kathleen Sch…The Gorter Family Fou…The Lake County Commu…The Chicago Community…Northwestern Memorial…Trustmark FoundationCircle of Service Fou…AbbVie FoundationHealthcare Foundation…United Way of Lake Co…The Buchanan Family F…Clarks Fork Foundation
John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber PhilanthropyIL59.2× affinity26 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber Philanthropy · The Gorter Family Foundation · The Lake County Community Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Group · Trustmark Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County · United Way of Lake County Inc · The Buchanan Family Foundation · Clarks Fork 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.

04Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Grainger Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to The Grainger Foundation Inc 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 142 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $22M of grant expense with no grantee named in the published copy. A private foundation itemizes every grant it makes, so a return carrying none has filed its list as an attachment that the public copy does not include. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines