· Private foundation
The Lawlor 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k34 grants · $83k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $30k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $10,000 |
| CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION | $10,000 |
| CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF CHICAGO | $10,000 |
| OXFAM AMERICA | $8,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $8,000 |
| GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DESPOSITORY | $8,000 |
| CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES | $4,000 |
| FOUNDATION FOR HOMAN SQUARE | $4,000 |
| THE WETLANDS INITIATIVE | $4,000 |
| CNEWA | $3,000 |
| URBAN INITIATIVES | $3,000 |
| DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY | $3,000 |
| SAINTS FAITH HOPE AND CHARITY | $2,500 |
| GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND | $2,000 |
| MISERICORDIA | $2,000 |
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 (FY20–25, $30k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% 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.
46 repeat relationships: 36 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC6× · 2020–2025 · $48k · revenue +39%
OXFAM-AMERICA INC6× · 2020–2025 · $44k · revenue +16%
GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY6× · 2020–2025 · $38k · revenue +17%
Funded once
- PCPAWS CHICAGOgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $2k · revenue +210%
- GUGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYone grant, 2023 · $1k
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.
Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…
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…
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
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…
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Education and Research
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…
See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.
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…
Achieving international impact through world-class research and education in fundamental computer science and information technology.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
How this is measured
28 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 28 of the 50 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 MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds OXFAM-AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds THE WETLANDS INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR HOMAN SQUARE F/K/A HOMAN ARTHINGTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds URBAN INITIATIVES INC ↗
- Who funds THE NIGHT MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds THE THRESHOLDS ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK COMMUNITY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES AND MAINTENANCE FOR THE ELDERLY INC ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds ENA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST ↗
- Who funds HADLEY INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds GUIDE DOG FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC ↗
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: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · 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 Lawlor Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lawlor Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Oxfam-America Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Lawlor’s filings →