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· Public charity
WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER
To support and accelerate business development and growth, targeting women and serving other underserved communities and veterans, in order to strengthen their participation in, and impact on, the economy.
$2.4M
Granted FY2023
32
Grants
1
Communities
$462k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 94% of WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2021
restaurantsalonhairspacaretruckingbar grill
2022
workerseducation trainingpersonstechnical entreprenuersfacilitatecleaners
2023
businessesindustrialchamberentrepreneursclientsesdcsouthland
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2023 · 32 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- $10k–50k24 grants · $373k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $560k
- $250k+4 grants · $1.5M
$15,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$36M
Total assets
Largest grants
- ILLINOIS HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE$461,579
- BERWYN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION$380,613
- ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS FKA ACCION CHICAGO INC$332,917
- ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION$302,210
- CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE$240,400
- SOUTHLAND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY$204,452
- CHICAGO MINORITY SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL INC$64,387
- THE JOSEPH CENTER$50,620
- CHICAGO'S SUNSHINE ENTERPRISE INC$25,000
- THE CHICAGO TREND CORPORATION$17,783
- ILLINOIS ARTS ALLIANCE$15,000
- IGNITE TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION$15,000
- SOUTH EAST CHICAGO COMMISSION$15,000
- STRATEGIC EXCEPTIONS PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING INC$15,000
- NORTHWEST HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE$15,000
02The need
04
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
show:
Your human-services grants (FY22–22, $137k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8% — the area typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
repeat funding
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
6%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.7M · 7 repeat orgs$26M to everyone else
7 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2023, 2 since wound down; 27 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
7
1966
Total granted
$1.7M
$25M
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+103%
+166%
Still filing today
71%
0%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $966k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Community ImprovementEmploymentEducationHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsCrime & LegalOther
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- IHILLINOIS HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE2× · 2022–2023 · $536k · revenue +206%
- BDBERWYN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION2× · 2022–2023 · $412k · revenue +38%
- AFALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS FKA ACCION CHICAGO INC2× · 2022–2023 · $383k · revenue +103%
Funded once
- HMHELEN MILLERSEIU MEMBER EDUCATION & TRAING CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $158k · revenue +236%
- QCQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUEgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $137k · revenue +1145%
- STSEIZE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION DBA INVEST AURORAgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $106k · revenue +166%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
1
Cook County Chamber
Philanthropy
2
Oak Lawn Chamber of Commerce
The OLCC works to represent and advance its business community to promote and improve the economic atmosphere along with the business climate and image of Oak Lawn
—
3
Greater Southwest Development Corp
The greater southwest development corporation is the catalyst for creating and maintaining a vital greater southwest chicago community.
Community Improvement
4
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
The center promotes and grows chicago's entrepreneurial community.
Community Improvement
5
Emerald South Economic Development Colloborative
To ensure that access and opportunities are shared to benefit residents and business owners of chicagos southside. aim to foster growth, attract new investment, develop our local workforce and support inclusive housing.
—
6
Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois
Uniting the southwestern illinois and greater st. louis region for economic growth
—
7
Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago
Strengthen companies in the kinzie industrial corridor and facilitate economic and community development by providing services and incubator space.
—
8
Logan Square Chamber of Commerce
Over 150 business members in Logan Square Area served through technical assistance, events, marketing and advocacy opportunities and services through the Chamber of Commerce.
Community Improvement
9
South Lake Union Chamber of Commerc
The slu chamber was formed to drive, expand, and preserve the economic, civic, and cultural development of the south lake union area for the prosperity of its people.
Community Improvement
10
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
The chicagoland chamber of commerce combines the power of people, with our legacy of leadership and business advocacy, to drive a dynamic economy.
—
11
Melrose Park Chamber of Commerce
The melrose park chamber of commerce and community development mission as a non-profit is to provide economic opprtunities in melrose park, illinois.
Community Improvement
12
Siouxland Chamber of Commerce
Improve the quality of the siouxland area
—
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Heights Development Corpora and the most unlike its peers is Amvets Post 100. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 27 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
Closures · last 5 years
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.1% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
orgs you fund
0.1%3/2,315
the rest of the field
15%
4,318/29,195
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
05the grantee network
36 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
19
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/36
Grantees still filing
33/36
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$26,279,957Community Improvement$1,160,782Employment$255,400Education$158,296Human Services$136,751Recreation & Sports$50,620Crime & Legal$10,000
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ILLINOIS HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ↗
- Who funds BERWYN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY BUSINESS FKA ACCION CHICAGO INC ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds SOUTHLAND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds HELEN MILLERSEIU MEMBER EDUCATION & TRAING CENTER ↗
- Who funds QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds SEIZE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION DBA INVEST AURORA ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO MINORITY SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds THE JOSEPH CENTER ↗
- Who funds COOK COUNTY BLACK CHAMBER ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO'S SUNSHINE ENTERPRISE INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Small Business Advocacy CouncilIL15.2× affinity5 shared granteesties to 7 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Small Business Advocacy Council · Chicago Urban League · Fifth Third Chicagoland Foundation · Somercor 504 Inc · Forefront · Illinois Action for Children · The Coleman Foundation Inc · Lee Initiative Inc · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Robert R McCormick Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · Greater Green Bay Community
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organisation WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: IGNITE TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
low risk
7 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 822863800 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on IGNITE TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 41% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Women's Business Development Center?
Find your warmest path to Women's Business Development Center through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines