· Private foundation
Walder Foundation
Its FY2024 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k8 grants · $40k
- $10k–50k25 grants · $819k
- $50k–250k145 grants · $13M
- $250k+22 grants · $10M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO | $2,250,000 |
| LUBAVITCH GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL INC | $1,500,000 |
| HILLEL TORAH NORTH SUBURBAN DAY SCHOOL | $500,000 |
| LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY | $482,709 |
| ALLIANCE FOR THE GREAT LAKES | $450,000 |
| MORTON ARBORETUM | $388,074 |
| CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY | $387,049 |
| SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY | $373,382 |
| YESHIVA SHEARIS YISROEL-VEITZENER CHEDER INC | $360,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH | $333,000 |
| ETZION FOUNDATION INC | $330,075 |
| NIJC NFP | $300,000 |
| RESEARCH CORPORATION | $300,000 |
| METROPOLITAN PLANNING COUNCIL | $300,000 |
| RELIEF RESOURCES INC | $275,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $7.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 92% 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
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 9% of Walder Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +42% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.
192 repeat relationships: 110 still active in FY2024, 82 since wound down; 51 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, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3.9M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LGLUBAVITCH GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL INC3× · 2020–2024 · $4.5M · revenue +69% · 45% of their budget
- RURush University Medical Center4× · 2020–2023 · $3.5M · revenue +30%
- FMFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY5× · 2020–2024 · $2.8M · revenue +112%
Funded once
- HTHebrew Theological Collegeone grant, 2021 · $1.5M
- IIIllinois Institute of Technologyone grant, 2023 · $540k · revenue +23%
- KJKEHILLAH JEWISH EDUCATION FUNDgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $500k · revenue +73% · 27% of their budget
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.
The Jewish Council on Urban Affair's (JCUA) longstanding mission is to combat poverty, racism and antisemitism working in partnership with diverse communities. JCUA uses a community organizing model to engage the Jewish community in the…
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…
To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.
Cinema/Chicago, the non-profit 501(c)(3) presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, enriches the community through year-round programming devoted to international and independent cinema. We strengthen communication…
To cultivate a growing international culture of listening.
Latino Union works to defend the rights and dignity of contingent workers, including the right to immigrate, work, live free of oppression and violence, and provide for oneself and one's family.
Presenting free high-quality classical music performances and music education experiences in the Chicago metropolitan area for people of all ages and degrees of musical awareness so they can experience how music enriches life.
The chicago high school for the arts (chiarts) develops the next generation of diverse, artistically promising scholar-artists through intensive pre-professional training in the arts, combined with a comprehensive college preparatory…
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.
The chicago committee seeks racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession by collaborating with its law firm and corporate membership to: drive sustainable institutional change at law firms and corporate legal departments; provide…
Secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all
How this is measured
287 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. 287 of the 356 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
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds LUBAVITCH GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds Rush University Medical Center ↗
- Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds FOREFRONT ↗
- Who funds THE MORTON ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO MEZUZAH AND MITZVAH CAMPAIGN ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds 3ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF HALA ↗
- Who funds NEO Philanthropy Inc ↗
- Who funds DEPAUL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Research Corporation dba Research Corporation for Science Advancement ↗
- Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds SHRIVER CENTER ON POVERTY LAW ↗
- Who funds MESIVTA SHAAREI ADIRIM ↗
- Who funds RELIEF RESOURCES INC ↗
- Who funds CROSSROADS FUND INC ↗
- Who funds SOULU ↗
- Who funds SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds WELCOMING AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds ETZION FOUNDATION INC co H SILVERA ↗
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: Field Foundation of Illinois · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Circle of Service Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Builders Vision Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Walder Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Walder Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Hias Inc: 88% of income from government
- World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals: 67% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Walder Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Walder 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 Walder’s filings →