GrantmakersIllinois

Great Lakes Region Organizing Committee

Chicago, IL · EIN 36-4465366. Reported 120 grants totalling $17.4M to 49 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

49organizations funded
$100,000median reported grant
$17.4Mgranted, 2021-2024
82%of grantees funded again the next year
24%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 Great Lakes Region Organizing Committee, the IRS classifies it under employment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE J40) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 49 distinct organizations, with 24% 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. 82% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 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 $100,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $100,000; the smallest was $5,470 and the largest $2,250,000. 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
8 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
32 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
59 grants
$250,000 Or More
11 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
Laborers International Union of North AmericaLansing, MI$4,210,581442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaDeforest, WI$2,656,500442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaSaint Paul, MN$2,462,664442024
Vote Yes for Workers RightsChicago, IL$1,007,500112022
Laborers International Union of North AmericaPleasanton, CA$525,000332024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaElgin, IL$400,850442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaHighland Park, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaWillow Spgs, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago Hts, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaLombard, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaCrest Hill, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$400,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaBrookfield, IL$375,000442024
Laborers International Union of North AmericaMarengo, IL$300,000332024
Laborers' Local Union 1Chicago, IL$200,500222022
All for JusticeChicago, IL$200,000112022
Laborers International Union of North AmericaChicago, IL$200,000222024
American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial OrgsChicago, IL$140,000332023
Laborers District Council & Vicinity Charitable Foundation IncBurr Ridge, IL$85,000442024
Illinois Institute of TechnologyChicago, IL$80,000332024
Illinois Afl-Cio R & ESpringfield, IL$65,000112023
Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La LuchaMinneapolis, MN$60,000332024
John William Hale FoundationSparta, TN$45,000332024
Jesse White Foundation LtdChicago, IL$32,500222024
D C Friends of IrelandLanham, MD$30,000332023
Illinois DeliversChicago, IL$30,000222024
Terence J O'sullivan Liuna Charitable FoundationWashington, DC$25,000112022
Ground Hog ClubChicago, IL$23,520332024
Liuna Latino CaucusSacramento, CA$20,000222024
Michigan Laborers' Scholarship FundLansing, MI$20,000222024
Mid-America Regulatory Conference IncDes Moines, IA$20,000112023
Washington Ireland Program for Service and LeadershipWashington, DC$15,000112021
Laborers International Union of North AmericaBurr Ridge, IL$13,950222024
Friends of LaborPhiladelphia, PA$10,000112024
Illinois Afl-Cio CopeSpringfield, IL$10,000112024
IrishechoNew York, NY$10,000112022
Laborers International Union of North AmericaMinneapolis, MN$10,000112024
Liuna African American CaucusWashington, DC$10,000112024
Liuna Women's CaucusWashington, DC$10,000112024
Michigan Laborers Scholarship FundLansing, MI$10,000112021
Ny Helmets to Hardhats IncNew York, NY$10,000112024
Saint Paul Serves FoundationSaint Paul, MN$10,000112021
Southern California District Council of Laborers Mike Quevedo SCovina, CA$10,000112024
Depaul UniversityChicago, IL$7,500112023
Illinois Labor History SocietyChicago, IL$5,500112022

31 of 49 (63%) 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.

It also reported 8 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

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 14 of 49 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
5 orgs
Employment
3 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
1 org
International Affairs
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
Human Services
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202126$4,235,500$100,000
202231$5,105,915$100,000
202328$2,060,040$100,000
202435$5,955,110$100,000

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

41% 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
$7.2M
Michigan
$4.2M
Wisconsin
$2.7M
Minnesota
$2.5M
California
$555K
District of Columbia
$60K
Tennessee
$45K
Maryland
$30K

Down to the city

Lansing, MI
$4.2M
Chicago, IL
$3.9M
Deforest, WI
$2.7M
Saint Paul, MN
$2.5M
Pleasanton, CA
$525K
Elgin, IL
$401K

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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.

Laborers International Union of North4 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc4 shared recipientsChicago Federation of Labor Workforce3 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund3 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program3 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc3 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 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 education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in MichiganEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Great Lakes Region Organizing Committee'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 8 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 27 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: 8770 W Bryn Mawr 1212, Chicago, IL, 60631.

EIN 36-4465366 · 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.