FundersIllinois

Wohlers Family Foundation the Northern Trust

Po Box Chica, IL · EIN 26-0530001. Reported 23 grants totalling $7,481,732 to 21 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$75,000median grant
$7,481,732granted, 2021-2024
21organizations funded
$46.0Massets, latest filing

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. Wohlers Family Foundation the Northern Trust did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $75,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $50,000 and $200,000; the smallest was $15,000 and the largest $1,942,205. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$10,000 - $25,000
1 grant
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
7 grants
$100,000 and Up
11 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
See Attached ScheduleSee Attached Schedule, IL$5,570,147332023
Avenues to IndependencePark Ridge, IL$260,000112024
Chicago Lighthouse for the BlindChicago, IL$210,000112024
Fisher House Foundation IncRockville, MD$200,000112024
Mayo FoundationRochester, MN$200,000112024
Guiding Eyes for the BlindYorktown Heights, NY$150,000112024
The Seeing EyeMorristown, NJ$150,000112024
ASPCANew York, NY$100,000112024
Shedd AquariumChicago, IL$100,000112024
Lurie Children's HospitalChicago, IL$75,000112024
Mote Marine LaboratorySarasota, FL$70,000112024
LssiDe Plaines, IL$56,874112024
Prentice Women's HospitalChicago, IL$54,711112024
Best Friends Animal SocietyKanab, UT$50,000112024
Chicago Coalition for the HomelessChicago, IL$50,000112024
Museum of Science and IndustryChicago, IL$50,000112024
Unlocking the Bible (open the Bible)Barrington, IL$35,000112024
Blue Path Service DogsHopewell Junction, NY$30,000112024
Face AutismE Ellenton, FL$30,000112024
Chicago Botanic GardenGlencoe, IL$25,000112024
Adaptive AdventuresWestminster, CO$15,000112024

1 of 21 (5%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 10 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Animal Welfare
3 grants
Human Services
3 grants
Employment
1 grant
Diseases & Disorders
1 grant
Health Care
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
20211$1,920,642$1,920,642
20221$1,942,205$1,942,205
20231$1,707,300$1,707,300
202420$1,911,585$63,437

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.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 87% of this one's giving went to organizations in Illinois. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Illinois
$6.5M
New York
$280K
Maryland
$200K
Minnesota
$200K
New Jersey
$150K
Florida
$100K
Utah
$50K
Colorado
$15K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc5 shared recipientsMorgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc5 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust5 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $75,000. 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 Illinois.
  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

Foundations funding human services in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Wohlers Family Foundation the Northern Trust'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: The Northern Trust Company, Po Box Chica, IL, 60680. 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 26-0530001 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

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