American Bar Endowment
Chicago, IL · EIN 36-2384321. Reported 36 grants totalling $23.0M to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For American Bar Endowment, the IRS classifies it under crime & legal rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE I800) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 49% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 32% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,500 and $25,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $3,830,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education | Chicago, IL | $11.2M | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| American Bar Foundation | Chicago, IL | $11.2M | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Legal Aid of Nebraska | Omaha, NE | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Amara Legal Center Inc | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Behavioral Ideas Lab Inc | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice | Oakland, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Code the Dream Inc | Durham, NC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Home Is Here Nola | New Orleans, LA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Lone Star Justice Alliance | Austin, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union | Mount Vernon, VA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| National Association of Counsel for Children | Denver, CO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New Friends New Life | Dallas, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Partners for Justice | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pathways Inc | Providence, RI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Pro Bono Net | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Right to Immigration Institute Inc | Waltham, MA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Women and Childrens Horizons Inc | Kenosha, WI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Memphis Public Interest Law Center | Germantown, TN | $24,100 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $23,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Montclair State University Foundation Inc | Montclair, NJ | $21,601 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Center for Victims of Crime Inc | Landover, MD | $20,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Start Small Think Big Inc | New York, NY | $20,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Women on the Rise Ga | Hapeville, GA | $20,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Glbtq Legal Advocates & Defenders Inc | Boston, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Resources Inspiring Success and Empowering | Houston, TX | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Nevada Las Vegas Foundation | Las Vegas, NV | $19,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | Bethesda, MD | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| DC Refers | Washington, DC | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Chabad Lubavitch of the Lehigh Valley Inc | Allentown, PA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | Cockeysville, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| National Judicial College | Reno, NV | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
2 of 32 (6%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Aba Fund for Justice & Education
UNRESTRICTED,SUPPORTS LAW-RELATED PROJECTSAND PROGRAMS - American Bar Foundation
UNRESTRICTED SUPPORTS LAW RELATED RESEARCH - National Judical College
WILLIAM T. ROBINSON SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 26 of 32 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4 | $7,389,576 | $1,847,144 |
| 2022 | 14 | $7,569,927 | $25,000 |
| 2023 | 18 | $8,012,000 | $25,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
97% of its giving went to organizations in Illinois. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available 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 grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Illinois.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from American Bar Endowment's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 18 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 321 N Clark Street 1400, Chicago, IL, 60654.
EIN 36-2384321 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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