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The Kemper Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Kemper Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$2.0M
Granted FY2024still arriving
145
Grants FY2024still arriving
18
States reached
$150k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Education$4.5MHealth$1.1MRecreation & Sports$568kCivil Rights$549kFood & Nutrition$415kHousing & Shelter$217kHuman Services$208kArts & Culture$74kOther$0
02FY2024 · 145 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k116 grants · $377k
  • $10k–50k14 grants · $219k
  • $50k–250k15 grants · $1.4M
$3,000
Median grant
18
States reached
$49M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION$150,000
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME DU LAC$150,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$150,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$150,000
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION$103,250
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY$94,322
UNIDOSUS$90,000
MILES COLLEGE$85,000
NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE$79,300
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEY$75,000
CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY$60,000
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES FOUNDATION$60,000
BREAKTHROUGH T1D$57,250
HARRIS-STOWE STATE UNIVERSITY$50,000
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY$50,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $270k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%THE BE KIND PROJECT: $4k → 11%NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: $100k → 17%NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: $80k → 17%NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: $79k → 17%WOMEN TOGETHER FOUNDATION: $825 → 27%WOMEN TOGETHER FOUNDATION: $825 → 27%WOMEN TOGETHER FOUNDATION: $500 → 27%HEART GALLERY OF ALABAMA: $5k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
NV
IA
IN
PA
NJ
CA
CO
MO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NC
DC
OK
AL
GA
TX
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

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

About 12% of The Kemper Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Kemper Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$5.5M · 47 repeat orgs$1.7M to everyone else

47 repeat relationships: 35 still active in FY2024, 12 since wound down; 108 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

47
196

Total granted

$5.5M
$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+7%
+23%

Still filing today

72%
18%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $347k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureFood & NutritionHealthHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • University of Chicago
    4× · 2019–2024 · $558k · revenue +25%
  • Northwestern University
    4× · 2019–2024 · $551k · revenue +34%
  • BT
    BREAKTHROUGH T1D
    5× · 2019–2024 · $380k · revenue +26%

Funded once

  • HF
    HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC
    one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue -16%
  • Southern Methodist Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $68k · revenue +37%
  • Lake Forest Collegegraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $48k · revenue +58%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
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
2
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
3
Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

Education
4
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
5
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
6
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
7
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
8
President and Fellows of Harvard College

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

Education
9
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
10
Aacsb International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

Aacsb international provides quality assurance of business school programs, the latest in business education intelligence, thought leadership, and learning and development services.

Education
11
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
12
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is La Salle University; the most unlike its peers is Power to Inspire Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

85 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. 85 of the 354 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
82/85
Grantees still filing
48/85
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

University of Notre Dame du Lac: $587,600 · EducationUniversity of Notre Dame du LacUniversity of Chicago: $558,000 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $550,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATIONMiles College Inc: $255,000 · EducationMiles College IncClark Atlanta University Inc: $215,000 · EducationClark Atlanta University IncCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES FOUNDATION: $185,000 · EducationCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES FOU…FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $105,000 · Education+16 more: $373,685 · Education+16 moreAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: $315,468 · OtherAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETYUNIDOSUS: $290,000 · OtherUNIDOSUSHARRIS STOWE STATE UNIVERSITY: $240,000 · OtherHARRIS STOWE STATE UNIVERSITYTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEY: $210,000 · OtherTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEYYOURCAUSE LLC: $172,398 · OtherYOURCAUSE LLCFLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: $135,000 · Other+152 more: $1,340,577 · Other+152 moreBREAKTHROUGH T1D: $379,780 · HealthBREAKTHROUG…American Heart Association Inc: $318,738 · HealthAmerican He…+3 more: $30,740 · HealthNorthwestern University: $551,000 · Recreation & SportsNATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE INC: $259,300 · Human Services+2 more: $8,250 · Human ServicesGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $60,000 · Food & NutritionFEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA INC: $30,000 · Food & NutritionCOMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL ALABAMA: $30,000 · Food & NutritionTHREE SQUARE: $25,000 · Food & NutritionSecond Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina Inc: $20,000 · Food & NutritionST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $20,000 · Food & NutritionREGIONAL FOOD BANK OF OKLAHOMA INC: $20,000 · Food & Nutrition+1 more: $5,000 · Food & NutritionHABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC: $100,000 · InternationalAIRLINK INC: $5,000 · International
Education$2,829,285Other$2,703,443Health$729,258Recreation & Sports$551,000Human Services$267,550Food & Nutrition$210,000International$105,000

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac: $587,600 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $558,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $551,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $550,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH T1D: $379,780 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $318,738 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIDOSUS: $290,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetNATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE INC: $259,300 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMiles College Inc: $255,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetClark Atlanta University Inc: $215,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES FOUNDATION: $185,000 over 4y, 1.0% of budgetFLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $105,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $68,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC: $67,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetLOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK: $60,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $60,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLake Forest College: $48,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE: $40,250 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetNORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetST LOUIS AREA FOOD BANK INC: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $38,556 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $32,120 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA: $30,189 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOOD BANK OF RIO GRANDE VALLEY INC: $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCRISTO REY MIAMI HIGH SCHOOL INC: $30,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetFEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA INC: $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL ALABAMA: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM: $26,152 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetTHREE SQUARE: $25,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES AUXILIARY SERVICES INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $24,008 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSecond Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina Inc: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetIndiana University Foundation: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetREGIONAL FOOD BANK OF OKLAHOMA INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLA SALLE UNIVERSITY: $18,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Leelanau School: $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetACCESS PSYCHOLOGY FOUNDATION: $15,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetGLEN ARBOR ARTS CENTER: $15,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetBERNIE'S BOOK BANK: $11,300 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHOLOCAUST MEMORIAL FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC: $10,750 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPOWER TO INSPIRE FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 8.0% of budgetBig Shoulders Fund: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

John D and Catherine …Polk Bros Foundation …Jpmorgan Chase Founda…The Blackbaud Giving …Charities Aid Foundat…Morgan Stanley Global…Gs Donor Advised Phil…National Philanthropi…Raymond James Charita…The Bank of America C…Network for GoodVanguard Charitable E…
John D and Catherine T Macarthur FoundationIL13.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Kemper Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Kemper Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 23%
  • Boston Medical Center Corporation: 23% of income from government
  • Feeding South Florida Inc: 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
24report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Kemper Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Kemper 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 354 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Kemper’s filings →

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