· Private foundation
The Van Dam Charitable 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k8 grants · $18k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $106k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $226k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TIMELINE THEATRE | $226,349 |
| FOURTH CHURCH | $40,804 |
| LANDMARKS ILLINOIS | $25,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN | $10,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| DEERFIELD ACADEMY | $10,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $10,000 |
| AUDITORIUM THEATRE | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION | $2,510 |
| CCDS | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| LPZOO | $2,500 |
| HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND OF THE FORTNIGHTLY | $1,500 |
| BREAKTHROUGH T1D | $1,000 |
| THE CRADLE | $518 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
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 +35% since the first grant, against -1% for those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 2 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Northwestern University5× · 2020–2024 · $90k · revenue +33%
University of Chicago5× · 2020–2024 · $50k · revenue +52%- TOTRUSTEES OF DEERFIELD ACADEMY5× · 2020–2024 · $40k · revenue +74%
Funded once
- CPCHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INCone grant, 2022 · $3k · revenue +10%
- RURoosevelt Universityone grant, 2023 · $3k · revenue -1%
- SJST JUDEone grant, 2021 · $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.
We are chicago's jesuit, catholic university - a diverse community seeking god in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.
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.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
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…
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…
Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…
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…
Steadfast in jesus christ as revealed in the holy scriptures, concordia university chicago promotes academic rigor in its liberal arts and professional programs; grounds students in objective truth, integrity, and excellence; and practices…
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
16 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. 16 of the 28 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 LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COUNCIL OF ILLINOIS ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF DEERFIELD ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds Columbia College Chicago ↗
- Who funds WOLCOTT SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO CITY DAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC PRESERVATION FOUNDATION OF THE FORTNIGHTLY ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC ↗
- Who funds Roosevelt University ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds JEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC ↗
- Who funds The Cradle Society ↗
- Who funds Save The Children Federation 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: The Chicago Community Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Van Dam Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Van Dam Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Van Dam Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Van Dam Charitable 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.
Play a game based on Van Dam’s filings →