Funders › Illinois

The Spencer Foundation

Chicago, IL · EIN 36-6078558. Reported 1,043 grants totalling $93.9M to 466 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. The Spencer Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $50,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $33,221 and $75,000; the smallest was $100 and the largest $3,748,782. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

Every organization it funded

All 466 recipients appear in its filings; the 250 largest are listed here. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which this organization received money -- the clearest signal of who this foundation actually has a relationship with.

193 of 466 (41%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 38%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

• National Academy of Education $3,748,782 · 2022
  NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (Cohorts 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24)
• Pomona College $671,438 · 2022
  Don't Take That Tone With Me': Linguistic Variation and Disciplinary Action on African American Children in Schools
• William T Grant Foundation $650,000 · 2024
  SUPPORT FOR THE 2024 INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE GRANT PROGRAM AT THE WILLIAM T. GRANT FOUNDATION
• Columbia University in the City of New York $593,600 · 2024
  SPENCER EDUCATION JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, 2024 - 2028
• The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York $588,872 · 2022
  Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship Program, 2020-2024
• Michigan State University $483,044 · 2024
  CREATING TRANSFORMATIVE POSSIBILITY IN SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 516 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Giving by year

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Already committed for future years

Form 990-PF has a separate schedule for grants approved but not yet paid. The Spencer Foundation has 402 of them, worth $83.1M. This is the one part of the filing that looks forward rather than back -- and it also tells you how much of the next year's budget is already spoken for.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 22% of this one's giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

How to approach this foundation

1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $50,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in District of Columbia.
3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Related guides

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Spencer Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 625 N Michigan Ave 1600, Chicago, IL, 60611. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 36-6078558 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

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