· Private foundation
The Karla Scherer 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k9 grants · $25k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $89k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $205k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HEALTH NETWORK FOUNDATION | $78,797 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $75,000 |
| PROJECT FREEDIVE | $51,110 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $28,890 |
| NEWBERRY LIBRARY | $20,000 |
| FIELD MUSEUM | $10,000 |
| THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $10,000 |
| LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO | $10,000 |
| ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $5,000 |
| LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND | $5,000 |
| PROVIDENCE ST MEL SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| COMMITTEE OF ARTS OF THE AMERICAS | $5,000 |
| ACLU | $1,000 |
| WFMT | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $312k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 94% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.
32 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 4 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, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $44k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
HEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC9× · 2017–2025 · $294k · revenue +329%
University of Chicago4× · 2017–2025 · $87k · revenue +56%- CSChicago Symphony Orchestra9× · 2017–2025 · $65k · revenue +58%
Funded once
- OCOCEAN CONNECT INCone grant, 2022 · $75k
- HMHELLENIC MUSEUM OF MICHIGANone grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue -14%
- FOFRIENDS OF NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue +51%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University ("The Auditorium"), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, is committed to presenting the finest in international, cultural, community and educational programming to Chicago and to the…
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
The driehaus museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. its permanent collection and temporary…
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
The music institute of chicago ("music institute") leads people toward a lifelong engagement with music, by providing widely accessible resources for high quality music teaching, performing, and service activities.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
The chicago theatre group is committed to producing both classic and contemporary works giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. by dedicating itself to three guiding principles - quality, equity, and community - the…
Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.
The Chicago History Museum strives to be a destination for learning, inspiration, and civic engagement. Through dynamic exhibitions, tours, programs, digital resources, and special events, the Museum connects people to Chicago's history…
The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.
The Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (the Museum), a 501(c)(3) corporation, is the largest science museum in the Western hemisphere and home to thousands of artifacts. For 90 years, the Museum has been a premier…
How this is measured
24 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 24 of the 46 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds HEALTHNETWORK FOUNDATION FKA HEALTH NET FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Chicago Humanities Festival ↗
- Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
- Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds Providence St Mel School ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ↗
- Who funds LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND ↗
- Who funds HELLENIC MUSEUM OF MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THIRD COAST PERCUSSION NFP ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS INC ↗
- Who funds Lifeline Productions Inc ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds THOROUGHBRED RETIREMENT FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds RepresentUs Education Fund ↗
- Who funds PARAGON SERVICE DOGS ↗
- Who funds The River School ↗
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: Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Karla Scherer Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Karla Scherer Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Karla Scherer Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Karla Scherer 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.
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