· Private foundation
WAG 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Greater Chicago Food Depository | $4,500 |
| Greater Boston Foodbank | $2,500 |
| Chicago Intl Puppet Theater Festival | $2,000 |
| Lyte Collective | $2,000 |
| Community Partners - Affordable Housing | $2,000 |
| Crossroads Fund | $1,500 |
| North Suburban Legal Aid | $1,000 |
| Highland Park Community Foundation | $1,000 |
| Forging Opp for Refugees in America | $1,000 |
| Moraine Township Food Pantry | $1,000 |
| Highwood Library and Comunity Center | $1,000 |
| Misericordia Heart of Mercy | $1,000 |
| The Simple Good | $250 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–25, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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.
22 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 85% 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
GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY4× · 2020–2025 · $30k · revenue +17%- CFCROSSROADS FUND INC9× · 2017–2025 · $23k · revenue +167%
- KOKenwood Oakland Community Organization5× · 2017–2021 · $13k · revenue +263%
Funded once
- MPMEDFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue -91%
- ACARTS COLLABORATIVE MEDFORD INCone grant, 2024 · $7k · revenue 0%
- FOFRIENDS OF MEDFORD ROWINGone grant, 2018 · $6k
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.
Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.
The Chicago Refugee Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated ot the alleviation of human suffering through innovative partnerships, advocacy and community empowerment.
A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.
The Chicago Parks Foundation is a separate 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that also serves as the strategic partner for the coordination of fundraising and charitable resources for the Chicago Park District.
The Chicago Cultural Alliances mission is to connect, promote, and support centers of cultural heritage for a more inclusive Chicago. We are an active consortium of 50 cultural heritage museums, centers, and historical societies that…
The GI Research Foundation works to treat, prevent, and cure digestive diseases. In collaboration with the physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Digestive Diseases Center, we fund innovative clinical and laboratory…
To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.
The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.
At legal aid chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental…
Seeks to address the traumas of police violence and institutionalized racism through access to healing and wellness services, trauma-informed resources, and community connection. The Center is a part of and supports a movement to end all…
Secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all
The Commons Project Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization established to build and operate digital services for the common good. Our mission is to empower individuals with access and control of their data, beginning…
How this is measured
24 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 24 of the 40 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 GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds CROSSROADS FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Kenwood Oakland Community Organization ↗
- Who funds MORAINE TOWNSHIP CHARITABLE FUND CHARITABLE FUND ↗
- Who funds Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago ↗
- Who funds Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival ↗
- Who funds MEDFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE CLEAR FUND ↗
- Who funds Highland Park Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds ARTS COLLABORATIVE MEDFORD INC ↗
- Who funds THE LYTE COLLECTIVE ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF MEDFORD ROWING ↗
- Who funds The Simple Good ↗
- Who funds Teach Democracy ↗
- Who funds GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE VAULT ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITIES FOR RESTORATIVE JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD FOR FREE COMMITTEE INC ↗
- Who funds COMPASS TO CARE ↗
- Who funds CONCORDIA PLACE ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds HAROLD E EISENBERG FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FEEDING PEOPLE THROUGH PLANTS NFP ↗
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: Julian Grace Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization WAG Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from WAG Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
- Communities for Restorative Justice Inc: 8% of income from government
- Food for Free Committee Inc: 3% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to WAG Foundation?
Find your warmest path to WAG 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 WAG’s filings →