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Illinois · Private foundation

Vail 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.

$92k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
20
Grants FY2025
19
Organizations funded FY2024
37%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$2,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$30,000
Organizations funded a year
15 to 26
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
6
Total assets, FY2025
$1.7M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 37% of the organizations Vail Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 40% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationRecreation & SportsHealthArts & CultureHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving19$90k21%
FY202419$57k37%
FY202315$56k13%
FY202224$52k8%
FY202125$60k8%
FY202020$50k5%
FY201926$107k38%
FY201819$99k47%
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$366kArts & Culture$235kHealth$61kReligion$45kRecreation & Sports$15kYouth Development$15kPhilanthropy$10kHuman Services$8kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
NH
ID
IL
WI
NY
MA
PA
CA
WV
NC
GA

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Ravinia Festival Association$110,00090%
Lake Forest College$85,00040%
Church of the Holy Spirit$42,0008n/a
Clearbrook$31,20060%
Northfield Mount Hermon School$30,00030%
Winnetka Community House Inc$28,00080%
Phillips Exeter Academy$22,00060%
Winnetka Historical Society$15,50081%
Emory University$11,0005n/a
Glen View Club Scholarship Foundation$11,00080%
Show all 36 grantees
All grantees of Vail Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Ravinia Festival Association$110,00090%
Lake Forest College$85,00040%
Church of the Holy Spirit$42,0008n/a
Clearbrook$31,20060%
Northfield Mount Hermon School$30,00030%
Winnetka Community House Inc$28,00080%
Phillips Exeter Academy$22,00060%
Winnetka Historical Society$15,50081%
Emory University$11,0005n/a
Glen View Club Scholarship Foundation$11,00080%
Geneva Foundation$10,0001n/a
Rush University Medical Center$10,00010%
Francis W Parker School$10,00010%
Independence Center Inc$8,00060%
University of Chicago$7,50040%
Access Mammoth$7,50050%
Northwestern University$7,50010%
Mothers Trust Foundation$6,00060%
Depaul University$6,00030%
Emory University$5,00020%
Davidson College$5,00010%
Geneva Foundation of Presbyterian Homes$4,35050%
Chicago Symphony Orchestra$4,00020%
Friends of the Pavillion Inc$3,6005n/a
Home of the Sparrow Inc$3,00010%
Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church$2,5001n/a
The Josselyn Center Nfp$2,50010%
Covenant Village of Northbrook$2,0001n/a
Stephen Petronio Dance Company Inc$1,50010%
Egg Harbor Firefighters Inc$1,1003n/a
New Trier Township Angel Fund Inc$1,0001n/a
Marshall University Foundation Incorporated$1,00010%
Egg Harbor Historical Society Inc$6001n/a
Juilliard School$50010%
Snow City Arts Foundation$50010%
Cradles to Crayons Inc$25010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 22 recipients with no EIN on record ($159k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Vail Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetRavinia Festival Association: $110,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetLake Forest College: $85,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetClearbrook: $31,200 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetNorthfield Mount Hermon School: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWinnetka Community House Inc: $28,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetPhillips Exeter Academy: $22,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetWinnetka Historical Society: $15,500 over 8y, 1.2% of budgetGlen View Club Scholarship Foundation: $11,000 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetRush University Medical Center: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFrancis W Parker School: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIndependence Center Inc: $8,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $7,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAccess Mammoth: $7,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetNorthwestern University: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMothers Trust Foundation: $6,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetDepaul University: $6,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEmory University: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDavidson College: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGeneva Foundation of Presbyterian Homes: $4,350 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra: $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHome of the Sparrow Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Josselyn Center Nfp: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetStephen Petronio Dance Company Inc: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMarshall University Foundation Incorporated: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJuilliard School: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSnow City Arts Foundation: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCradles to Crayons Inc: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 27.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Chicago Community TrustIL17.3× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Kemper Educational and Charitable Fund · Baxter International Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Vail Family Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Vail Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Vail 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.

About Vail Family Foundation

How much does Vail Family Foundation give?
Vail Family Foundation reported 20 grants totaling $91,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 26 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Vail Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (48%), Arts & Culture (31%), Health (8%).
Who are Vail Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Ravinia Festival Association ($110k), Lake Forest College ($85k), Church of the Holy Spirit ($42k).
Does Vail Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 37% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Vail Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Vail Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, Kemper Educational and Charitable Fund, Baxter International Foundation.
Where is Vail Family Foundation based?
Vail Family Foundation is based in IL.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 60 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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