GrantmakersIllinois

First Look for Charity Foundation

Oakbrook Terrace, IL · EIN 26-0092209. Reported 55 grants totalling $6,260,741 to 20 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

20organizations funded
$97,840median reported grant
$6,260,741granted, 2021-2023
95%of grantees funded again the next year
18%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 First Look for Charity Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 20 distinct organizations, with 18% 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. 95% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $97,840. Half of what it reported fell between $77,119 and $133,370; the smallest was $15,945 and the largest $515,813. 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.
$10,000 - $25,000
2 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
23 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
22 grants
$250,000 Or More
3 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
Misericordia HomeChicago, IL$1,125,782332023
Ann & Robert H Lurie Childrens Hospital of ChicagoChicago, IL$421,486332023
Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago IncChicago, IL$375,873332023
Turning Pointe Autism FoundationNaperville, IL$365,577332023
Franciscan Community Benefits Services IncLemont, IL$357,180332023
First Look for Charity FoundationOakbrook Ter, IL$350,047222022
Habitat for Humanity International IncChicago, IL$322,264332023
The 100 Club of IllinoisChicago, IL$304,439332023
Advocate Charitable FoundationDowners Grove, IL$298,654332023
Sertoma Star Services IncChicago Hts, IL$271,554332023
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of ChicagoChicago, IL$259,605222022
Special Olympics IllinoisNormal, IL$255,054332023
Jesse White Tumbling Team IncChicago, IL$251,588332023
Als United Greater ChicagoChicago, IL$244,518332023
Susan G Komen Breast Cancer FoundationDallas, TX$235,113332023
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of JolietArlington Heights, IL$232,222332023
Glenwood AcademyGlenwood, IL$220,836332023
Lydia Home AssociationChicago, IL$213,177332023
Cals All Star Angel Foundation IncSt Charles, IL$98,529112023
Young Mens Christian Assn NormalBloomington, IL$57,243222023

19 of 20 (95%) 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 kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 13 of 20 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.

Health Care
3 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Youth Development
1 org
Religion
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Employment
1 org
Recreation & Sports
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202118$1,504,637$64,457
202219$2,361,093$113,945
202318$2,395,011$104,387

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

96% 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.

Illinois
$6.0M
Texas
$235K

Down to the city

Chicago, IL
$3.5M
Naperville, IL
$366K
Lemont, IL
$357K
Oakbrook Ter, IL
$350K
Downers Grove, IL
$299K
Chicago Hts, IL
$272K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund14 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc14 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc11 shared recipientsThe Chicago Community Trust11 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust10 shared recipientsCharities Aid Foundation America10 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 $97,840 -- 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 Illinois.
  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 human services in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from First Look for Charity Foundation'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.

Address of record on the latest return: 18W200 Butterfield Rd, Oakbrook Terrace, IL, 60181.

EIN 26-0092209 · 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.