Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The John P Calamos 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.

$1000k
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$650k
Largest
01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Education$13MArts & Culture$2.9MReligion$484kPublic Benefit$301kCommunity Improvement$200kInternational$175kHealth$39kHuman Services$36kOther$0
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $15k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $300k
  • $250k+1 grant · $650k
$10,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$57M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATIONAL HELLENIC MUSEUM$650,000
ASSUMPTION GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH$100,000
ST NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH$100,000
WASHINGTON OXI DAY FOUNDATION$50,000
HELLENIC INITIATIVE INC$50,000
LOUKOUMI MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOUNDATION$25,000
GIFT OF ADOPTION$10,000
ST IAKOVOS RETREAT CENTER$5,000
ORDER OF ST ANDREW$4,000
HELLENIC AMERICAN ACADEMY$2,500
HILLSDALE COLLEGE$2,000
TURNING POINT USA$1,000
HERITAGE FOUNDATION$100
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY22–22, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%TURNING POINTE AUTISM FOUNDATION: $1k → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
CA
DC
FL

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 98% of The John P Calamos Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 94% of the giving stays in IL; read by stated purpose it is 2% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The John P Calamos Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your 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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$17M · 11 repeat orgs$596k to everyone else

11 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
25

Total granted

$17M
$558k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+9%
+15%

Still filing today

55%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $39k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureHealthPhilanthropyFood & NutritionInternationalOther

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

  • II
    Illinois Institute of Technology
    6× · 2018–2024 · $13M · revenue +28%
  • WO
    Washington Oxi Day Foundation
    6× · 2020–2025 · $300k · revenue +20%
  • HI
    HELLENIC INITIATIVE INC
    4× · 2021–2025 · $150k · revenue +1%

Funded once

  • GC
    GOFUNDME CHARITY
    one grant, 2020 · $200k
  • CI
    CROSSROAD INSTITUTE INC
    one grant, 2022 · $80k · revenue -73%
  • YC
    YORKVILLE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue +30%

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

04Your 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
The American College of Greece

To add distinctive and sustainable value to our students as well as greece, american education, hellenic heritage, and the global community through transformative teaching, scholarship, and service.

International
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
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
4
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
5
Lake Forest College

Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support…

Education
6
Saint Xavier University

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…

Education
7
Eastern University

Eastern university is a diverse, christ-centered community preparing graduates to impact the world through faith, reason, and justice.

Education
8
George Fox University

George fox university, a christ centered community, prepares students spiritually, academically, and professionally to think with clarity, act with integrity, and serve with passion.

Education
9
Furman University

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.

Education
10
Manhattan University

Manhattan university is an independent catholic instituion of higher learning that embraces qualified men and women of all faiths, cultures, and traditions. the mission of manhattan university is to provide a contemporary, person-centered…

Education
11
American Press Institute Inc

American press institute acts as a scout on the frontier of technology and audience behavior to identify where change is occurring and helps news organizations learn how to implement and scale that change successfully so they have a…

Arts & Culture
12
University of Chicago

The mission of the university of chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Yorkville Christian High School. 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 28 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%7%<5yr13%14%5–10yr18%25%10–20yr15%18%20–35yr14%21%35–55yr22%14%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%1%<5yr13%1%5–10yr18%3%10–20yr15%17%20–35yr14%0%35–55yr22%78%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/30
the rest of the field
12%
8,891/72,329

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.

05the grantee network

25 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 42 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/25
Grantees still filing
16/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Illinois Institute of Technology — $13,075,000 · EducationIllinois Institute of Technology+5 more — $184,000 · EducationNational Hellenic Museum — $2,837,886 · Arts & CultureNational Hellenic Mu…Washington Oxi Day Foundation — $300,000 · Arts & CultureWashington Oxi Day F…+3 more — $22,000 · Arts & CultureGOFUNDME CHARITY — $200,000 · OtherST NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH — $125,000 · OtherGREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH THE ASSUMPTION OF CHICAGO AND WESTERN — $120,000 · OtherRONALD MCDONALD HC CNI — $25,000 · OtherORDER OF ST ANDREW THE APOSTLE INC — $25,000 · OtherORDER OF ST ANDREW — $23,000 · Other+21 more — $126,100 · OtherHELLENIC INITIATIVE INC — $150,000 · InternationalEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation Inc — $100,000 · ReligionTHE LOUKOUMI MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 · Youth DevelopmentCAREER & NETWORKING CENTER — $25,000 · Philanthropy
Education$13,259,000Arts & Culture$3,159,886Other$644,100International$150,000Religion$100,000Youth Development$25,000Philanthropy$25,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetIllinois Institute of Technology — $13,075,000 over 6y, 2.8% of budgetNational Hellenic Museum — $2,837,886 over 8y, 53% of budgetWashington Oxi Day Foundation — $300,000 over 6y, 13% of budgetHELLENIC INITIATIVE INC — $150,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation Inc — $100,000 over 3y, 3.7% of budgetCROSSROAD INSTITUTE INC — $80,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetYORKVILLE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL — $50,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetNaperville Education Foundation — $25,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetINDIAN PRAIRIE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $25,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetCAREER & NETWORKING CENTER — $25,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetDistinguished Flying Cross Society — $15,000 over 1y, 9.5% of budgetNAPERVILLE COMMUNITY TELEVISION — $15,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetAURORA AREA INTERFAITH FOOD PANTRY — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetJULIE AND MICHAEL TRACY FAMILY FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetUNITING VOICES — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHIPPOCRATIC CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetKIDS GOLF FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS — $5,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetNAPERVILLE AREA HUMANE SOCIETY — $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE — $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEAA AVIATION FOUNDATION INC — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTURNING POINT USA INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTURNING POINTE AUTISM FOUNDATION — $1,000 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 loosely connected circle, clustered around a few shared anchors.

Buhler Kapsalis Family FoundationWI17.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 6 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Buhler Kapsalis Family Foundation · Metropoulos Family Foundation · The George and Judy Marcus Family Foundation II · The Dupage Community Foundation · Gianaras Foundation · Neil & Ginny Gerald Family Foundation · Hellenic Foundation · Libra Global Philanthropies Foundation Inc · The James & Theodore Pedas Family Foundation Inc · Naperville Rotary Charities Inc · Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley · Arthur J Gallagher 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 John P Calamos 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%4%15%34%60%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The John P Calamos Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The John P Calamos 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.

    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 42 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph