· Private foundation
Wheeler Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
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 $10k6 grants · $25k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $190k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $503k
- $250k+3 grants · $1.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $748,000 |
| CARLE HEALTH CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY | $462,874 |
| VERMILION ASSOCIATION FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION | $377,964 |
| CROSSPOINT HUMAN SERVICES | $202,419 |
| DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $175,000 |
| IROQUOIS SPECIAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION | $73,592 |
| DANVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT | $52,358 |
| EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $45,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION | $45,000 |
| DONOVAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | $43,182 |
| GEORGETOWN RIDGE FARM CUSD #4 | $25,559 |
| IROQUOIS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT #9 | $16,741 |
| OAKWOOD CUSD #76 | $14,073 |
| COVINGTON COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION | $8,631 |
| HOOPESTON MULTI AGENCY SERVICES CENTER | $6,400 |
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 (FY23–23, $45k) land where the poverty rate runs at 19%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 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
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 Wheeler Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 85%.
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 +39% since the first grant, against -1% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 9 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, 57% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $987k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- ISILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $1.4M · revenue +24%
University of Illinois Foundation5× · 2020–2024 · $165k · revenue +74%- TATHE ARC OF IROQUOIS COUNTY2× · 2021–2023 · $88k · revenue +26%
Funded once
- ISIROQUOIS SPECIAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATone grant, 2021 · $82k
- WEWORKSOURCE ENTERPRISESone grant, 2020 · $75k · revenue -49%
- HRHUMAN RESOURCES CENTER OF EDGARCLARK COUNTYone grant, 2023 · $72k
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.
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…
The mission of goodwill is to create opportunities for individuals with barriers to enhance their lives. barriers include physical or mental disabilities, lack of education and job preparation, socio-economic disadvantages, and others.…
To develop knowledgeable and effective leaders to become policy and decision makers for the agricultural industry.
Enhancing lives by promoting the safe & efficient use of electricity.
Executive Service Corps is the premier nonprofit consultancy that engages highly skilled professionals who use their experience and expertise to provide nonprofits with the consulting services they need to be successful. Our vision is to…
Pathways of wisconsin provides supported employment opportunities and empowerment through quality, person-centered programming for individuals of all abilities.
The Arc of Illinois is committed to empowering persons with disabilities to achieve full participation in community life through informed choices.
The siue foundation exists to support the mission, vision, and values of southern illinois university edwardsville. on behalf of the university, the foundation provides fundraising coordination and implementation, serves as the steward for…
DePaul Group, Inc. is a parent corporation that provides administrative support to further the strategic purposes and missions of affliated 501(c)3 corporations and affilated for profit corporations which DePaul Group is the sole…
To assist in providing educational opportunitites.
Improve oral health by providing funds for dental education and access to care programs
The purpose of the illinois stewardship alliance is to promote the ecologically sustainable, economically viable, socially just, local food systems through policy development, advocacy, and education.
How this is measured
9 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. 9 of the 32 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 ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CROSSPOINT ↗
- Who funds DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE ARC OF IROQUOIS COUNTY ↗
- Who funds WORKSOURCE ENTERPRISES ↗
- Who funds Eastern Illinois University Foundation ↗
- Who funds DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES CENTER OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds HOOPESTON MULTI AGENCY SERVICE ↗
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: Iroquois Federal Foundation Inc · Community Foundation of East Central Illinois · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Wheeler Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wheeler Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Wheeler Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Wheeler 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 Wheeler’s filings →