· Private foundation
The Macdougal 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.
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 · FY2025
- Under $10k49 grants · $79k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $111k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BARRY A MURPHY FUND | $50,200 |
| NEXT GENERATION BULGARIA FUND | $25,000 |
| HOLY TRINITY GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH | $25,000 |
| CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION - CHICAGO | $18,490 |
| HISTORY CENTER OF LAKE FOREST | $12,050 |
| PROJECT HOOD HELPING OTHERS | $10,000 |
| ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS INC | $10,000 |
| WIREPOINTS | $10,000 |
| FORWARD MOMENTUM CHICAGO | $6,000 |
| GRANDVILLE AVENUE ARTS & HUMANITIES | $5,000 |
| FIRST PRESB CHURCH OF LAKE FOREST | $5,000 |
| FRIENDS OF LAKE FOREST PARKS & REC | $5,000 |
| THE NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN MEMORIAL CHU | $5,000 |
| CITADEL THEATER | $3,250 |
| CHICAGO CULTURAL ALLIANCE | $2,500 |
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 (FY17–21, $3k) 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.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +33% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.
98 repeat relationships: 43 still active in FY2025, 55 since wound down; 13 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, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $51k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- NGNext Generation Bulgaria Fund9× · 2017–2025 · $150k · revenue +50% · 28% of their budget
- WCWIREPOINTS CORP6× · 2019–2025 · $70k · revenue +37%
- GLGUIDING LIGHT MISSION INC4× · 2020–2024 · $70k · revenue +4%
Funded once
University of Chicagoone grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +22%- HCHARVARD CLUB OF CHICAGOone grant, 2018 · $10k
- ACAMERICAN CULTURE FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +71%
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.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
To create a nation where everyone enjoys a fair share of our collective prosperity.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
The peterson institute for international economics (piie) is an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to strengthening prosperity and human welfare in the global economy through expert analysis and practical…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
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…
The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…
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.
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.
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…
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…
How this is measured
86 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. 86 of the 179 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 Next Generation Bulgaria Fund ↗
- Who funds A song for You ↗
- Who funds WIREPOINTS CORP ↗
- Who funds GUIDING LIGHT MISSION INC ↗
- Who funds UCLA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE ALEX FUND INC ↗
- Who funds History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS INC ↗
- Who funds Hudson Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds NEW YORK CITY BALLET INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF LAKE FOREST PARKS & REC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FORWARD MOMENTUM CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CULTURE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE CHICAGO CLUB PRESERVATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds CATO INSTITUTE ↗
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 · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Canning Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Ranch Spur Charitable Trust · Garrett Family Foundation · Butler Family Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber Philanthropy · Robert R McCormick Foundation · The Allstate Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Macdougal Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Macdougal Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Macdougal Family’s filings →