Illinois · Private foundation
Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $46k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 16
- Grants FY2025
- 14
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 14%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $1,500
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $22,500
- Organizations funded a year
- 14 to 16
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 2
- Total assets, FY2025
- $1.4M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 14% of the organizations Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 14% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 16 | $46k | 13% |
| FY2024 | 14 | $57k | 14% |
| FY2023 | 15 | $47k | 7% |
| FY2022 | 14 | $50k | 0% |
| FY2021 | 14 | $63k | 7% |
| FY2020 | 15 | $81k | 0% |
| FY2019 | 16 | $40k | 19% |
| FY2018 | 15 | $39k | 27% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Brain Tumor Association | $42,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Sharing Center Inc | $31,700 | 9 | 1% |
| Community Food Pantry | $26,000 | 9 | 5% |
| Twin Lakes Area Food Pantry Inc | $26,000 | 9 | 18% |
| Fish of McHenry | $26,000 | 9 | 2% |
| US Pain Foundation Inc | $25,000 | 1 | 4% |
| Society of St Vincent de Paul Rockford Council | $20,300 | 7 | 0% |
| Antioch Area Healthcare Accessibility Alliance Inc | $5,600 | 2 | 2% |
Plus 18 recipients with no EIN on record ($259k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation supplied at peak.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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 Blackbaud Giving Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
Compare Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation with peer funders
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Vern & Bunny Thelen 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 Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation
- How much does Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation give?
- Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation reported 16 grants totaling $45,700 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 14 and 16 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Food & Nutrition (60%), Health (20%), Human Services (16%).
- Who are Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: American Brain Tumor Association ($42k), Sharing Center Inc ($32k), Community Food Pantry ($26k).
- Does Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Blackbaud Giving Fund, Amazonsmile Foundation.
- Where is Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation based?
- Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Vern & Bunny Thelen Family’s filings →