GrantmakersIllinois

Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy

Chicago, IL · EIN 36-4253176. Reported 61 grants totalling $8,306,415 to 42 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

42organizations funded
$100,000median reported grant
$8,306,415granted, 2021-2024
35%of grantees funded again the next year
8%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for medical research (NTEE H125).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 42 distinct organizations, with 8% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 35% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 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 $100,000. Half of what it reported fell between $61,409 and $249,966; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $667,200. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
5 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
7 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
3 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
10 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
21 grants
$250,000 Or More
15 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Virginia Polytechnic Inst & State UniversityBlacksburg, VA$667,200112021
Childrens Hospital CorporationBoston, MA$350,000222024
Northwestern UniversityEvanston, IL$350,000222023
St Jude Childrens Research Hospital IncMemphis, TN$349,999222024
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$324,971332024
Morehouse CollegeAtlanta, GA$322,790222024
University of UtahSalt Lake City, UT$304,872332024
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityStanford, CA$270,609222023
Brandeis UniversityWaltham, MA$250,000112022
Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA$250,000112021
Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA$250,000112022
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$250,000112023
New York Medical CollegeValhalla, NY$250,000112022
Regents of the University of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI$250,000112024
Research Foundation for the State University of New YorkAlbany, NY$250,000112021
The University of IowaIowa City, IA$250,000112022
University of KentuckyLexington, KY$250,000112021
University of Wisconsin MadisonMadison, WI$250,000112024
University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallas, TX$249,966112023
Axonis Therapeutics IncBoston, MA$249,150112022
Gryphon Bio IncSouth San Francisco, CA$238,100222024
Cognizance Biomarkers LLCPhiladelphia, PA$238,050112021
University of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$172,232222022
University of WashingtonSeattle, WA$141,154112021
Virginia Tech Foundation IncBlacksburg, VA$140,393112022
Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PA$130,000222022
Regents Univ of CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$125,000112024
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$115,190112024
Board of the University of AlabamaTuscaloosa, AL$100,000112023
Quiver BiosciencesCambridge, MA$100,000112024
The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia FoundationPhiladelphia, PA$100,000112023
University of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA$100,000112023
University of Vermont and State Agricultural CollegeBurlington, VT$100,000112022
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT$100,000112024
The Childrens Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, PA$99,995112022
University of MarylandBaltimore, MD$99,916112023
Mid Adlantic Epilepsy & Sleep Center LLCBethesda, MD$81,375222023
University of FloridaGainesville, FL$61,409112021
American Epilepsy SocietyChicago, IL$60,750442024
Gordon Research ConferencesE Greenwich, RI$29,006332023
Mayo ClinicRochester, MN$28,617222023
Alliance for Epilepsy ResearchDexter, MI$5,671112022

14 of 42 (33%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 24 of 42 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.

Education
12 orgs
Health Care
8 orgs
Recreation & Sports
1 org
Diseases & Disorders
1 org
Science & Technology
1 org
Civil Rights
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202113$2,268,883$100,000
202217$2,148,769$100,000
202318$1,878,201$99,985
202413$2,010,562$125,000

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

18% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. 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.

Massachusetts
$1.5M
California
$906K
Georgia
$823K
Virginia
$808K
New York
$615K
Pennsylvania
$568K
Illinois
$411K
Tennessee
$350K

Down to the city

Atlanta, GA
$823K
Blacksburg, VA
$808K
Boston, MA
$599K
Somerville, MA
$575K
Philadelphia, PA
$568K
Evanston, IL
$350K

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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.

National Philanthropic Trust8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc8 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program8 shared recipientsTulsa Community Foundation7 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc7 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $100,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. 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

Foundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding health care in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 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: 420 N Wabash Ave Ste 650, Chicago, IL, 60611.

EIN 36-4253176 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.