Bls Family Foundation
Chicago, IL · EIN 36-4420871. Reported 52 grants totalling $2,442,000 to 22 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 Bls Family Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a support organization for one specific institution (NTEE T11).
- How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 19% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 63% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $27,500. Half of what it reported fell between $25,000 and $60,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $300,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends of the Children - Chicago | Chicago, IL | $455,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Ark | Chicago, IL | $440,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago | Chicago, IL | $315,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| American Friends of Natal Inc | New York, NY | $270,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| New Israel Fund | New York, NY | $130,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Institute for Nonviolence Chicago | Chicago, IL | $117,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc | Chicago, IL | $115,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago | Chicago, IL | $107,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of Chicago Medical Center | Chicago, IL | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights | Chicago, IL | $85,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Sinai Health System | Chicago, IL | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Metropolitan Family Services | Merrionette Park, IL | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Stop Stalking US Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Orot the Center for New Jewish Learning | Deerfield, IL | $32,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lawndale Christian Legal Center | Chicago, IL | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Chicago Community Trust | Chicago, IL | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Jewish Federations of North America Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Yogacare | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Council for Jewish Elderly | Chicago, IL | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Am Yisrael Conservative Congregation North Shore | Northfield, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Project Unloaded Inc | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Block Club Chicago Nfp | Chicago, IL | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
14 of 22 (64%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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.
- Friends of the Children - Chicago
General Operating Support and Program Manager salary - Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights
READI Program and READI for Reentry Program
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 20 of 22 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 8 | $249,500 | $25,000 |
| 2021 | 10 | $367,500 | $31,250 |
| 2022 | 12 | $380,000 | $32,500 |
| 2023 | 11 | $560,000 | $25,000 |
| 2024 | 11 | $885,000 | $60,000 |
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
81% 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.
Down to the city
Get funders for your state and cause by email
We email you funders that gave to organizations in your state and cause, up to five at a time each week and never the same one twice, from their own IRS filings. Free. The weekly email has not started yet.
Unsubscribe in one click from any email. We never sell or share your address. To match on your organization and typical grant size too, keep a private profile.
Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $27,500 -- 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 Bls Family Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 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: 30 South Wells Street 4049, Chicago, IL, 60606.
EIN 36-4420871 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.