· Private foundation
The William and Mary Davis Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k28 grants · $77k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $56k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TUSKEEGEE NEXT FOUNDATION | $60,000 |
| GO CHI LIFE | $25,000 |
| HAYMARKET CENTER | $10,500 |
| PROGRESSIVE BAPTIST CHURCH | $10,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN | $6,000 |
| DO SOMETHINGORG | $5,000 |
| NEW CITY CHURCH MINISTRIES | $5,000 |
| BECK CULTURAL CENTER | $5,000 |
| LEADERSHIP GREATER CHICAGO | $5,000 |
| TIMOTHY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| EAST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER | $5,000 |
| SOUTHSIDE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE | $5,000 |
| ST SABINA CHURCH | $5,000 |
| FOX VALLEY CHRISTIAN ACTION | $3,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY18–24, $62k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 66% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +32% since the first grant, against +27% for the ones you funded once.
34 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2024, 16 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, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $48k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- EYEMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION2× · 2021–2022 · $100k · revenue +5%
- MFMetropolitan Family Services6× · 2018–2023 · $28k · revenue +245%
- RCRiverwoods Christian Center dba Fox Valley Christian Action7× · 2018–2024 · $14k · revenue +141%
Funded once
- TDTHE DUSABLE BLACK HISTORY MUSEUM AND EDUCATION CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +44%
- FCFIREHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER OF CHICAGOone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue 0%
- VFVETERANS FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INCone grant, 2023 · $8k · revenue -73%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Live Free Illinois is a statewide organization partnering with over 120 congregations and directly impacted individuals to build safer more equitable communities across Illinois. Operating at the intersection of criminal justice reform and…
Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.
To achieve parity in economic opportunity for people of color by advancing multiracial leadership in corporate governance, expanding the talent pipline for executive-level management, and growing minority businesses.
A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.
In furtherance of its charitable and educational goals, the Network's activities consist primarily of providing educational opportunities for its members and the public on issues related to the advancement of women in the workplace. As the…
The chicagoland chamber of commerce combines the power of people, with our legacy of leadership and business advocacy, to drive a dynamic economy. we focus on delivering value for our members, making chicagoland a world-class place to live…
The team at kipp chicago schools is guided by a simple, yet powerful mission: to create a network of excellent schools in chicago that teach our students the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond, and to…
Female strong is a 501c3 non-profit organization and a community of committed individuals that offer hands-on programs, mentorship, and experiences that build confidence in middle and high school girls. we support the inclusion of all…
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.
Thrive chicago's mission is to prepare chicago's youth for a vibrant future by aligning efforts and outcomes from cradle to career.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Emerald Youth Foundation and the most unlike its peers is True Chicago. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 31 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
52 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 52 of the 99 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds THE TUSKEGEE NEXT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds McDermott Center ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Family Services ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN ↗
- Who funds GO CHI LIFE ↗
- Who funds Riverwoods Christian Center dba Fox Valley Christian Action ↗
- Who funds TIMOTHY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds LINK Unlimited Scholars ↗
- Who funds THE DUSABLE BLACK HISTORY MUSEUM AND EDUCATION CENTER ↗
- Who funds FIREHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds CALCULATED GENIUS INC ↗
- Who funds YOUNG LIFE ↗
- Who funds VETERANS FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC ↗
- Who funds GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds DO SOMETHING INC ↗
- Who funds ELDERDAY CENTER ↗
- Who funds SUSTAINABILITY INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds LEADERSHIP GREATER CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds DAYSTAR US INC ↗
- Who funds EAST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER ↗
- Who funds TRUE CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds THE LINCOLN ACADEMY OF ILLINOIS ↗
- Who funds FIERCE WOMEN OF FAITH NFP ↗
- Who funds GREENWOOD PROJECT ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Robert R McCormick Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · East Tennessee Foundation · Motorola Solutions Foundation · Domanada Foundation · Grand Victoria Foundation · Fifth Third Chicagoland Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · The Boyd Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The William and Mary Davis Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Miguel Cabrera Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The William and Mary Davis Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The William and Mary Davis 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.