Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Kadens Family 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.

$475k
Granted FY2025still arriving
20
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$11MHealth$2.2MHuman Services$794kSocial Science$605kArts & Culture$253kHousing & Shelter$193kEmployment$133kYouth Development$113kOther$0
02FY2025 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k12 grants · $176k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $285k
$11,250
Median grant
6
States reached
$57k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE ASPEN INSTITUTE$100,000
BREAKTHROUGH T1D$75,000
BEARS CARE$60,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO FOUNDATION$50,000
NATIONAL-LOUIS UNIVERSITY$30,000
ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM & EDUCATION CENTER$25,000
CHICAGO INNOVATION FOUNDATION$20,000
CARA PROGRAM$15,000
YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO$15,000
CHICAGO INNOVATION FOUNDATION$11,250
NORTH SHORE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL$10,000
YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO$10,000
GREENLIGHT FUND INC$10,000
CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES$10,000
JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION$10,000
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 (FY19–25, $789k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%SOCIAL FINANCE INC: $200k → 16%SHALOM TIKVAH INC: $18k → 11%WEAVINGIMPACT: $10k → 19%LINCOLN PARK VILLAGE INC: $25k → 14%LINCOLN PARK VILLAGE INC: $15k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $96k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $50k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $50k → 14%AFTERMATH: $10k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $40k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $30k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $10k → 14%INFANT WELFARE SOCIETY OF EVANSTON INC: $2k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $5k → 14%INFANT WELFARE SOCIETY OF EVANSTON INC: $1k → 14%INVEST FOR KIDS INC: $10k → 14%INVEST FOR KIDS INC: $10k → 14%INVEST FOR KIDS INC: $10k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $40k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $35k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $25k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $15k → 14%YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $15k → 14%SHARE OUR SPARE: $13k → 14%SHARE OUR SPARE: $25k → 14%SHARE OUR SPARE: $5k → 14%SHARE OUR SPARE: $15k → 14%SHARE OUR SPARE: $10k → 14%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

MN
IL
NY
MA
OH
PA
CA
CO
MD
TN
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.

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$15M · 43 repeat orgs$752k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +37% since the first grant, against +1% for the ones you funded once.

43 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2025, 30 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

43
39

Total granted

$15M
$710k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+37%
+1%

Still filing today

95%
82%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $43k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesHealthArts & CulturePhilanthropyCommunity ImprovementOther

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

  • HC
    HOPE CHICAGO INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $8.7M · revenue +80% · 29% of their budget
  • PF
    PROMEDICA FOUNDATION
    4× · 2020–2023 · $1.4M · revenue +34%
  • THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $605k · revenue +193%

Funded once

  • Social Finance Inc
    one grant, 2021 · $200k · revenue -3%
  • JU
    JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGOgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue +30%
  • MR
    MICHAEL REESE HEALTH TRUST
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +4%

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 Chicago Scholars Foundation

Chicago scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities.

Education
2
Kipp Chicago Schools

The team at kipp chicago schools is guided by a simple, yet powerful mission: to create a network of excellent schools in chicago that teach our students the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond, and to…

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
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
5
A Better Chicago

A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.

Human Services
6
Students Run Chicago
Health
7
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
8
Thrive Chicago Nfp

Thrive chicago's mission is to prepare chicago's youth for a vibrant future by aligning efforts and outcomes from cradle to career.

Human Services
9
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
10
Junior Achievement of Chicago

To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy

International
11
Chicago Collegiate Inc

To equip all students in grades six through twelve with the academic skills, intellectual habits and character traits to succeed in the college of their choice, strenghten their communities and change the world.

Education
12
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

The chicagoland chamber of commerce combines the power of people, with our legacy of leadership and business advocacy, to drive a dynamic economy. we focus on delivering value for our members, making chicagoland a world-class place to live…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids First Chicago for Education and the most unlike its peers is Firebrand Arts Network. 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 27 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%6%<5yr14%10%5–10yr18%23%10–20yr17%18%20–35yr14%17%35–55yr16%26%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%2%<5yr14%61%5–10yr18%6%10–20yr17%3%20–35yr14%11%35–55yr16%17%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
1%1/85
the rest of the field
15%
5,686/36,929

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.

04the grantee network

84 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. 84 of the 88 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
14
Early backer (in before they grew)
78/84
Grantees still filing
51/84
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HOPE CHICAGO INC — $8,701,665 · OtherHOPE CHICAGO INC+41 more — $978,630 · Other+41 moreTHE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO FOUNDATION — $951,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF …HOPE TOLEDO SERVICES — $475,000 · EducationHOPE TOLEDO SERVIC…OTTAWA HILLS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $406,000 · EducationOTTAWA HILLS SCHOO…National Louis University — $190,000 · EducationNational Louis Uni…OPEN DISCOURSE COALITION — $180,000 · EducationOPEN DISCOURSE COA…+16 more — $395,150 · Education+16 morePROMEDICA FOUNDATION — $1,395,000 · Public BenefitPROMEDICA…+1 more — $5,000 · Public BenefitYWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $281,000 · Human ServicesSocial Finance Inc — $200,000 · Human ServicesThe YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago — $130,000 · Human ServicesShare our Spare — $67,500 · Human ServicesLINCOLN PARK VILLAGE INC — $40,000 · Human ServicesInvest for Kids Inc — $30,000 · Human Services+4 more — $40,500 · Human ServicesTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $604,500 · Social ScienceBREAKTHROUGH T1D — $412,500 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc — $100,000 · HealthMICHAEL REESE HEALTH TRUST — $50,000 · Health+4 more — $39,000 · HealthBEARS CARE — $110,000 · PhilanthropyTHE CHICAGO INNOVATION FOUNDATION — $82,250 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $50,000 · PhilanthropyMOD COLLECTIVE — $15,000 · PhilanthropyDESIGNS FOR DIGNITY — $10,000 · Philanthropy
Other$9,680,295Education$2,597,150Public Benefit$1,400,000Human Services$789,000Social Science$604,500Health$601,500Philanthropy$267,250

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 budgetHOPE CHICAGO INC — $8,701,665 over 4y, 29% of budgetPROMEDICA FOUNDATION — $1,395,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO FOUNDATION — $951,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $604,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetHOPE TOLEDO SERVICES — $475,000 over 4y, 5.6% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH T1D — $412,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetOTTAWA HILLS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $406,000 over 5y, 15% of budgetYWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $281,000 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetSocial Finance Inc — $200,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNational Louis University — $190,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetOPEN DISCOURSE COALITION — $180,000 over 4y, 8.1% of budgetHOLOCAUST MEMORIAL FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC — $152,500 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetThe YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago — $130,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetThe Cara Program — $122,500 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetSTREETWISE — $115,000 over 3y, 7.8% of budgetBEARS CARE — $110,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetJOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION — $102,500 over 6y, 4.4% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc — $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO INNOVATION FOUNDATION — $82,250 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetGLENCOE PTO — $75,150 over 3y, 26% of budgetShare our Spare — $67,500 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetBUILD INC — $65,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetPRIMO CENTER FOR WOMEN & CHILDREN — $60,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBucknell University — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY — $45,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetVictory Gardens Theater — $42,500 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetLINCOLN PARK VILLAGE INC — $40,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetGREENLIGHT FUND INC — $40,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetInvest for Kids Inc — $30,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetNOBLE NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS — $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS — $30,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetDEFY VENTURES INC — $29,500 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetEMBARC INC — $26,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND INC — $25,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetHISTORIC SOUTH INITIATIVE — $25,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetPCH MINISTRIES — $25,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetShalom Tikvah Inc — $18,000 over 1y, 8.0% of budgetPCD KS FOUNDATION — $18,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetIMERMAN ANGELS — $17,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetChicagoland Entrepreneurial Center — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetIllinois Institute of Technology — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMOD COLLECTIVE — $15,000 over 2y, 4.4% of budgetHorizons for Youth — $15,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetCHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINNER-CITY COMPUTER STARS FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFeeding America — $10,000 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.

Polk Bros Foundation …Arie and Ida Crown Me…Circle of Service Fou…The Chicago Community…Robert R McCormick Fo…Jewish Federation of …Lloyd a Fry FoundationThe Joyce FoundationJohn D and Catherine …Fulk Family Foundatio…United Way of Metropo…Vivo Foundation
Polk Bros Foundation IncIL38.8× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Circle of Service Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Fulk Family Foundation Inc · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Vivo 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 Kadens Family 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%2%8%17%30%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Social Finance Inc — 12% of income from government
  • City Year Inc — 11% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
17report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 Kadens Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Kadens Family 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 88 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

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 endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home