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Varney Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Varney 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.

$2k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$500
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$6kReligion$3kInternational$2kFood & Nutrition$2kHuman Services$2kArts & Culture$1kHealth$600
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$250
Median grant
3
States reached
$23k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Kansas State University Foundation$500
University of Illinois Foundation$500
First Presbyterian Church$250
Loaves and Fishes$250
Smile Train$100
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 20% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Metropolitan Family Services: $250 → 14%Unchained At Last: $350 → 10%Hesed House: $250 → 8%Metropolitan Family Services: $250 → 14%Unchained At Last: $350 → 10%Loaves and Fishes: $250 → 7%Loaves and Fishes: $250 → 7%Hesed House: $250 → 8%Loaves and Fishes: $250 → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ID
IL
NY
MA
NJ
VA
KS
DC
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 21% of Varney Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 56% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 38%.

Varney Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 3.1% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$12k · 15 repeat orgs$4k to everyone else

15 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
3

Total granted

$12k
$4k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
+137%

Still filing today

87%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesInternationalEducationHealthFood & NutritionArts & CultureOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • University of Illinois Foundation
    6× · 2020–2025 · $3k · revenue +74%
  • KS
    KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2025 · $2k · revenue +77%
  • LF
    LOAVES & FISHES COMMUNITY SERVICES
    3× · 2020–2025 · $750 · revenue +124%

Funded once

  • KP
    KNOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
    one grant, 2020 · $3k
  • YN
    YOUNG NAPERVILLE SINGERSgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $500 · revenue +137%
  • YS
    YOUTH SYMPHONY OF DUPAGE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $500 · revenue +106%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Management Sciences for Health Inc

(msh) saves lives and improves the health of the world's poorest (see schedule o) and most vulnerable people by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health.

International
2
Partners in Food Solutions

Improve the food value chain in developing countries by mobilizing corporate volunteers to share knowledge and expertise with small and growing food processors.

International
3
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

The mission of the global alliance for improved nutrition (gain) is to improve the consumption of healthier diets for all, especially the most vulnerable, by improving the availability, affordability, desirability, and sustainability of…

Food & Nutrition
4
United States Pharmacopeial Convention

Usp's mission is to improve global health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods.

Health
5
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals
6
Women for Women International

In countries affected by conflict and war, women for women international (women for women) supports the most marginalized women to earn and save money, improve health and well-being, influence decisions in their home and community, and…

International
7
Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States Inc

The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…

Health
8
Sign Fracture Care International

Sign partners with overseas surgeons to build sustainable orthopaedic capacity by donating education, instruments, and implants. by working with teaching hospitals and hosting educational conferences worldwide, sign equips surgeons to heal…

Health
9
Muso Inc

Muso works to create a cure for delay because no one should die waiting for health care.

International
10
Technoserve Inc

Technoserve's mission is to fight poverty by helping people build regenerative farms, businesses, and markets that increase incomes.

International
11
Isf Advisors Inc

Isf advisors is the leading strategic and financial advisory group committed to mobilizing capital for a more sustainable, equitable, and productive global food system.

Food & Nutrition
12
Land O'lakes VENTURE37

To replace poverty with prosperity by implementing donor-funded projects that provide global humanitarian aid to communities and individuals in developing countries through in-kind, financial and technical assistance.

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Medecins Sans Frontieres Usa Inc; the most unlike its peers is Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

15 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. 15 of the 19 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
12/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

KNOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $2,789 · OtherKNOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHUniversity of Virginia: $1,250 · OtherUniversity of VirginiaSMILE TRAIN INC: $600 · OtherSMILE TRAIN INCYOUNG NAPERVILLE SINGERS: $500 · OtherYOUNG NAPERVILLE SINGERSFirst Presbyterian Church: $250 · OtherFonkoze: $200 · OtherUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $3,000 · EducationUniversity of Illinois FoundationKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $2,000 · EducationKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONLOAVES & FISHES COMMUNITY SERVICES: $750 · Human ServicesLOAVES & FISHES C…UNCHAINED AT LAST INC: $700 · Human ServicesUNCHAINED AT LAST…PUBLIC ACTION TO DELIVER SHELTER INC D/B/A HESED HOUSE: $500 · Human ServicesPUBLIC ACTION TO …Metropolitan Family Services: $500 · Human ServicesMetropolitan Fami…MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $500 · InternationalGRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA: $400 · InternationalFONKOZE USA INC: $300 · InternationalON SITE FOR SENIORS INC: $500 · HealthPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $500 · HealthNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK: $500 · Food & NutritionYOUTH SYMPHONY OF DUPAGE INC: $500 · Arts & Culture
Other$5,589Education$5,000Human Services$2,450International$1,200Health$1,000Food & Nutrition$500Arts & Culture$500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $3,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetLOAVES & FISHES COMMUNITY SERVICES: $750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNCHAINED AT LAST INC: $700 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSMILE TRAIN INC: $600 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetPUBLIC ACTION TO DELIVER SHELTER INC D/B/A HESED HOUSE: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG NAPERVILLE SINGERS: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetON SITE FOR SENIORS INC: $500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetYOUTH SYMPHONY OF DUPAGE INC: $500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetGRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA: $400 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFONKOZE USA INC: $300 over 3y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Varney Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Varney Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    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 19 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

    Play a game based on Varney Family’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home