· Private foundation
The Lyon Family 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k17 grants · $53k
- $10k–50k11 grants · $209k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $214k
- $250k+1 grant · $305k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $305,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $112,500 |
| METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES | $51,000 |
| EMBARC | $50,000 |
| GATEWAY TO LEARNING | $37,500 |
| BLOOD CANCER UNITED | $25,000 |
| THE DOVETAIL PROJECT | $25,000 |
| ALZHEIMER'S ASSOC | $20,363 |
| THE FORGE FOR FAMILIES | $20,000 |
| ASCENSION IL FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| THE RYAN LICHT SANG BIPOLAR FOUNDAT | $18,250 |
| BY THE HAND CLUB FOR KIDS | $11,410 |
| MOD COLLECTIVE | $11,150 |
| EVERLOVED | $10,100 |
| UNITING VOICES CHICAGO | $10,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $391k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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.
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 +44% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.
38 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2024, 19 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $199k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BCBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC6× · 2017–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +4%
University of Chicago4× · 2021–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +34%- MFMetropolitan Family Services8× · 2017–2024 · $307k · revenue +332%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $38k
- SOSHIELD OF HOPE SALVATION ARMYone grant, 2018 · $26k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $25k
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.
Curesearch's mission is to fund & support targeted & innovative cancer research with measurable results, & to be the authoritative source of information & resources for all those affected by children's cancer. see schedule o for…
The GI Research Foundation works to treat, prevent, and cure digestive diseases. In collaboration with the physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Digestive Diseases Center, we fund innovative clinical and laboratory…
Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service
Stanley manne children's research institute strives to generate new knowledge and advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric diseases.
We value excellence and innovation in clinical and basic research, coordinated and comprehensive patient care, ongoing physician education, and evidence-based child advocacy. our goal is to provide leadership in endeavors that promote the…
The national fragile x foundation serves the entire fragile x community to live their best lives by providing the knowledge, resources, and tools until, and even after, more effective treatments and a cure are achieved.
To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy
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.
Provide pediatric and subspecialty surgical, research, and educational services.
The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…
To advance cures and treatment of childhood cancer and other rare diseases.
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.
How this is measured
67 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. 67 of the 111 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 BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Family Services ↗
- Who funds EMBARC INC ↗
- Who funds UNITING VOICES ↗
- Who funds THE FORGE FOR FAMILIES ↗
- Who funds Lawndale Educational and Regional Network Charter School ↗
- Who funds UNION LEAGUE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS ↗
- Who funds International Neighborhood Collaborative ↗
- Who funds THE RYAN LICHT SANG BIPOLAR FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds PILOT LIGHT ↗
- Who funds BARRINGTON CHILDRENS CHARITIES ↗
- Who funds GATEWAY TO LEARNING ↗
- Who funds IMERMAN ANGELS ↗
- Who funds AFTER SCHOOL MATTERS INC ↗
- Who funds PLANET HOPE ↗
- Who funds Culinary Care ↗
- Who funds By The Hand Club For Kids ↗
- Who funds WORKING IN THE SCHOOLS INC ↗
- Who funds HOPE CHICAGO INC ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE ZACHARY PLANTZ FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DESIGNS FOR DIGNITY ↗
- Who funds Share our Spare ↗
- Who funds ONEGOAL ↗
- Who funds Nicholas D Sergi Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE MARFAN FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MOD COLLECTIVE ↗
- Who funds THE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED ↗
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: The Chicago Community Trust · AbbVie Foundation · Imc Chicago Charitable Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · The Kadens Family Foundation · Cme Group Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lyon Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lyon Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Lyon Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Lyon 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.
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