Illinois · Private foundation
The Jessica Fund
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $387k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 31
- Grants FY2025
- 29
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 48%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $5,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $90,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 19 to 29
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 6
- Total assets, FY2025
- $2.9M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 48% of the organizations The Jessica Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 27% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $84k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 30 | $307k | 47% |
| FY2024 | 29 | $305k | 48% |
| FY2023 | 23 | $614k | 4% |
| FY2022 | 22 | $359k | 36% |
| FY2021 | 19 | $193k | 37% |
| FY2020 | 29 | $141k | 38% |
| FY2019 | 28 | $330k | 29% |
| FY2018 | 29 | $108k | 52% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Theatre Group Inc | $793,175 | 8 | 1% |
| Museum of Contemporary Art | $707,218 | 9 | 1% |
| Barnard College | $105,000 | 6 | 0% |
| The Brearley School | $56,500 | 8 | 0% |
| Georgia O'Keeffe Museum | $45,000 | 8 | 0% |
| Mitzvah Matters | $41,500 | 9 | 4% |
| Francis W Parker School | $36,500 | 7 | 0% |
| Chicago History Museum | $28,810 | 8 | n/a |
| Human Rights Watch Inc | $27,500 | 4 | 0% |
| Friends of United Hatzalah Inc | $24,000 | 1 | n/a |
Show all 77 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 28 recipients with no EIN on record ($301k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
The Jessica Fund supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 63 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · California Community Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Circle of Service Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Annenberg Foundation · John H Hart Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Jessica Fund?
Find your warmest path to The Jessica Fund 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.
About The Jessica Fund
- How much does The Jessica Fund give?
- The Jessica Fund reported 31 grants totaling $387,435 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 19 and 29 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does The Jessica Fund fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (61%), Education (13%), Philanthropy (9%).
- Who are The Jessica Fund's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Chicago Theatre Group Inc ($793k), Museum of Contemporary Art ($707k), Barnard College ($105k).
- Does The Jessica Fund fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 48% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does The Jessica Fund accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as The Jessica Fund?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Polk Bros Foundation Inc, California Community Foundation.
- Where is The Jessica Fund based?
- The Jessica Fund is based in IL.
Play a game based on Jessica’s filings →