Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation
Evanston, IL · EIN 36-2170145. Reported 44 grants totalling $5,259,920 to 26 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 Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in education -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE B110).
- How spread out its giving is. 26 distinct organizations, with 31% 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. 45% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below 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 $65,097. Half of what it reported fell between $22,616 and $150,000; the smallest was $6,191 and the largest $1,292,625. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Starkville, MS | $1,642,615 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Lambda Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Inc | Somers, CT | $546,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Alabama Alpha Mu Fraternal Association | Evanston, IL | $450,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| South Dakota Sigma Chapter House Association | Sioux Falls, SD | $315,354 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation | Evanston, IL | $300,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Lawrence, KS | $294,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Des Moines, IA | $239,029 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Evanston, IL | $225,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Ohio Tau Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $179,179 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| North Dakota Alpha Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $177,466 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Oklahoma Mu Alumni Corporation | Stillwater, OK | $137,400 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Oregon Beta Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $129,791 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| House Corporation of Mississipps Theta of Sigma Alpha Epsilon | Evanston, IL | $106,168 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraterity | Evanston, IL | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Georgia Phi Association of Sigma Alpha Espilon Inc | Acworth, GA | $97,184 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Devotie Hall Assn | Cincinnati, OH | $92,716 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Illinois Beta Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Michigan Gamma Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $52,273 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Building Association | Lincoln, NE | $29,741 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Indiana Delta Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Lewisburg, PA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Indiana Sigma Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $14,876 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Texas Tau for Sigma Alpha Epsilon Housing Authority | Evanston, IL | $12,437 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Wichita, KS | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Idaho Alpha Housing LLC | Evanston, IL | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity | Cedar Falls, IA | $6,191 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
11 of 26 (42%) 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.
- Sae Pennsylvania Zeta Chapter
Leadership Development Training
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 3 of 26 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 | $1,672,340 | $46,886 |
| 2021 | 10 | $686,640 | $53,703 |
| 2022 | 8 | $699,386 | $83,140 |
| 2023 | 10 | $1,518,883 | $112,500 |
| 2024 | 8 | $682,671 | $66,092 |
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
35% 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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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 $65,097 -- 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 Sigma Alpha Epsilon 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 1 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: 1856 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60201.
EIN 36-2170145 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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