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Walter S Mander Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Walter S Mander 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.

$538k
Granted FY2025still arriving
58
Grants FY2025still arriving
11
States reached
$116k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Philanthropy$806kFood & Nutrition$351kCrime & Legal$275kCommunity Improvement$227kReligion$214kEnvironment$165kEducation$142kHealth$88kOther$0
02FY2025 · 58 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k41 grants · $151k
  • $10k–50k14 grants · $171k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $216k
$5,000
Median grant
11
States reached
$7.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FOREFRONT$116,393
NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL$50,000
STAR FARM CHICAGO$20,350
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS$15,000
GARFIELD PARK COMMUNITY COUNCIL$15,000
CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN$15,000
JEWISH UNITED FUND$15,000
COURT THEATRE$10,750
BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY$10,000
THE FORWARD ASSOCIATION INC$10,000
BABSON COLLEGE$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD$10,000
NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY$10,000
KAM ISAIAH ISRAEL CONGREGATION$10,000
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 (FY21–25, $132k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ASPIRITECH NFP: $1k → 8%THE SELFHELP HOME INC: $20k → 14%THE SELFHELP HOME INC: $15k → 14%THE SELFHELP HOME INC: $10k → 14%THE SELFHELP HOME INC: $10k → 14%THE SELFHELP HOME INC: $5k → 14%ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF CHICAGO: $5k → 14%ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF CHICAGO: $5k → 14%OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: $15k → 14%OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: $15k → 14%OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: $15k → 14%OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: $15k → 14%SISTER HOUSE: $500 → 14%SISTER HOUSE: $500 → 14%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

NH
IL
WI
NY
MA
SD
IA
PA
CA
CO
VA
MD
NC
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.4M · 55 repeat orgs$181k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against +4% for those funded once.

55 repeat relationships: 41 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

55
29

Total granted

$2.4M
$121k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%
+4%

Still filing today

62%
48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k went to new ones.

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

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

’21’22’23’24’25
EducationFood & NutritionCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesArts & CultureEnvironmentOther
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

  • F
    FOREFRONT
    5× · 2021–2025 · $477k · revenue +81%
  • GP
    Garfield Park Community Council
    5× · 2021–2025 · $83k · revenue +6%
  • GH
    GROWING HOME INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $82k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • UC
    U CHICAGO HILLEL
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
  • AA
    AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES
    one grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue -40%
  • GF
    GOOD FOOD CATALYST
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
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
The Chicago Bar Foundation

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.

Education
2
A Better Chicago

A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.

Human Services
3
Junior Achievement of Chicago

To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy

International
4
Illinois College

Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…

Education
5
Fielding Graduate University

We provide exemplary interdisciplinary programs for a community of scholar-practitioners within a distributed learning model grounded in student-driven inquiry and leading to enhanced knowledge.

—
6
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
7
Arise Chicago

Arise chicago builds partnerships between faith communities and workers to fight workplace injustice through education, organizing, and advocating for public policy changes.

Employment
8
National Opinion Research Center

See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…

Social Science
9
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
10
Cair-Chicago

A grass roots civil rights activisim, community outreach and political empowerment to the community members.

Civil Rights
11
Chicago United for Equity

Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.

Civil Rights
12
The University of Chicago Charter School Corporation

To Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Horticultural Society; the most unlike its peers is Kinderhaus. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

55 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. 55 of the 101 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)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
55/55
Grantees still filing
40/55
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: $250,000 · OtherNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL: $250,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOLSTAR FARM CHICAGO: $78,350 · OtherSTAR FARM CHICAGOBNAI ABRAHAM-ZION CONGREGATION: $65,000 · OtherGROWING HOME INC: $82,000 · OtherGROWING HOME INC+61 more: $592,149 · Other+61 moreFOREFRONT: $477,191 · PhilanthropyFOREFRONTJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $75,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNITED FUND OF M…+1 more: $1,500 · PhilanthropyGarfield Park Community Council: $82,500 · Community ImprovementGarfield …ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS INC: $47,500 · Community ImprovementALLIES FO…Jewish Council on Urban Affairs: $30,800 · Community ImprovementJewish Co…THE DELTA INSTITUTE: $27,000 · Community ImprovementTHE DELTA…NEIGHBORSPACE: $20,000 · Community ImprovementNEIGHBORS…+1 more: $5,000 · Community ImprovementADVOCATES FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE NFP: $77,500 · Food & NutritionPlant Chicago NFP: $37,500 · Food & NutritionURBAN GROWERS COLLECTIVE INC: $37,000 · Food & NutritionSweet Water Foundation Inc: $20,000 · Food & NutritionJUST ROOTS JUST ROOTS CHICAGO: $15,000 · Food & NutritionSUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS FUNDERS: $8,000 · Food & NutritionREFED INC: $8,000 · Food & Nutrition+1 more: $2,000 · Food & NutritionTHE SELFHELP HOME INC: $60,000 · Human ServicesOPPORTUNITY KNOCKS INCORPORATED: $60,000 · Human ServicesASSOCIATION HOUSE OF CHICAGO: $10,000 · Human Services+2 more: $2,000 · Human ServicesCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $70,000 · EnvironmentSEVEN GENERATIONS AHEAD: $30,000 · EnvironmentONE EARTH COLLECTIVE: $10,600 · EnvironmentTHE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $10,000 · EnvironmentBABSON COLLEGE: $40,000 · EducationUNC HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · EducationBucknell University: $20,000 · EducationGARDENEERS: $7,500 · EducationSAINT XAVIER UNIVERSITY: $5,729 · EducationCollege of Lake County Foundation: $5,000 · Education+3 more: $5,600 · Education
Other$1,317,499Philanthropy$553,691Community Improvement$212,800Food & Nutrition$205,000Human Services$132,000Environment$120,600Education$108,829

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 budgetFOREFRONT: $477,191 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetGarfield Park Community Council: $82,500 over 5y, 3.2% of budgetGROWING HOME INC: $82,000 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetSTAR FARM CHICAGO: $78,350 over 5y, 2.4% of budgetADVOCATES FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE NFP: $77,500 over 4y, 5.2% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $75,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $70,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SELFHELP HOME INC: $60,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetOPPORTUNITY KNOCKS INCORPORATED: $60,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS INC: $47,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBABSON COLLEGE: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPlant Chicago NFP: $37,500 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetNEW ISRAEL FUND: $37,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetURBAN GROWERS COLLECTIVE INC: $37,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetThe Forward Association Inc: $34,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetJewish Council on Urban Affairs: $30,800 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetSEVEN GENERATIONS AHEAD: $30,000 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetTHE DELTA INSTITUTE: $27,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetUNC HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBucknell University: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc: $20,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetNEIGHBORSPACE: $20,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSweet Water Foundation Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJUST ROOTS JUST ROOTS CHICAGO: $15,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetONE EARTH COLLECTIVE: $10,600 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetCAROLINA BALLET INC: $10,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetASSOCIATION HOUSE OF CHICAGO: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetRoosevelt University: $9,911 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS FUNDERS: $8,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetREFED INC: $8,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGARDENEERS: $7,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetELAWA FARM FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTHE WOMEN'S RABBINIC NETWORK LTD: $6,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetSAINT XAVIER UNIVERSITY: $5,729 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSPERTUS INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEnlace Chicago: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAITH IN PLACE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF HEBREW UNIVERSITY INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR LAW & LIBERTY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCollege of Lake County Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKINDERHAUS: $2,500 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetAbove and Beyond Family Recovery Center NFP: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBASIL'S HARVEST INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetAustin Coming Together: $1,100 over 1y, 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.

  • Who funds FOREFRONT ↗
  • Who funds Garfield Park Community Council ↗
  • Who funds GROWING HOME INC ↗
  • Who funds STAR FARM CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds ADVOCATES FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE NFP ↗
  • Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds THE SELFHELP HOME INC ↗
  • Who funds OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS INC ↗
  • Who funds BABSON COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds Plant Chicago NFP ↗
  • Who funds NEW ISRAEL FUND ↗
  • Who funds URBAN GROWERS COLLECTIVE INC ↗
  • Who funds The Forward Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds Jewish Council on Urban Affairs ↗
  • Who funds SEVEN GENERATIONS AHEAD ↗
  • Who funds THE DELTA INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds UNC HEALTH FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds Bucknell University ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc ↗
  • Who funds NEIGHBORSPACE ↗
  • Who funds Sweet Water Foundation Inc ↗
  • Who funds INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds JUST ROOTS JUST ROOTS CHICAGO ↗

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…ForefrontJohn D and Catherine …The Lumpkin Family Fo…Field Foundation of I…Polk Bros Foundation …The Joyce FoundationBuilders Vision Found…Arie and Ida Crown Me…Jewish Federation of …Circle of Service Fou…United Way of Metropo…
The Chicago Community TrustIL48.5× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Forefront · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Lumpkin Family Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Joyce Foundation · Builders Vision Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Circle of Service Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of income from government
  • Babson College: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
18report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 101 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 Walter S Mander’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