Grants by Priority
Total Grants 147 | Total Amount $4,767,100
1Scientific Research grants include three Brinson Prize Fellowships.
2The Foundation provided Professional Development and Technical Assistance grants which benefited 36 existing grantees.
These grants totaled $75,000.
Chicago Botanic Garden – Chicago Horticultural Society ▲
2020 Endorsement Grants
Endorsement grants are made to a limited number of leading institutions selected by the Foundation’s Directors. These grants often involve ongoing core support of the institution rather than specific programmatic support pursuant to the Foundation’s grantmaking priorities. The Foundation does not accept inquiries or applications relating to the Endorsement grant category, as decisions to include grants in this category are solely within the discretion of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Adler Planetarium
Chicago, IL
Cosmology and Astrophysics Research
$80,000
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Medical Research – Brinson Fellowship
$80,000
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$80,000
Chicago Architecture Center
Chicago, IL
General Support
$50,000
Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Horticultural Society
Glencoe, IL
General Support
$50,000
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Historical Society
Chicago, IL
General Support
$60,000
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Chicago, IL
General Support
$60,000
Eisenhower Health
Rancho Mirage, CA
Nursing Education and General Support
$50,000
The Field Museum
Chicago, IL
Learning Center Programs
$80,000
The Joffrey Ballet
Chicago, IL
General Support
$40,000
La Rabida Children’s Hospital
Chicago, IL
General Support
$80,000
Lincoln Park Zoological Society
Chicago, IL
General Support
$60,000
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$60,000
The Morton Arboretum
Lisle, IL
General Support
$40,000
Museum of Science and Industry
Chicago, IL
General Support and Welcome to Science Initiative
$80,000
Northwestern Memorial Foundation
Chicago, IL
Nursing Education and NICU Lactation Program
at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
$51,000
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Chicago Academy of Sciences
Chicago, IL
General Support
$40,000
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Medical Research – Junior Investigator Award
$75,000
Shedd Aquarium
Chicago, IL
General Support
$80,000
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Brinson Stroke Fellowship
$75,000
Special Olympics Illinois
Normal, IL
General Support
$50,000
The University of Chicago Medicine
Chicago, IL
Medical Research – Junior Investigator Award
$100,000
WTTW
Window to the World Communications, Inc.
Chicago, IL
Local Broadcast of NOVA and General Support
$70,000
MetroSquash ▲
2020 Programmatic Grants | Education
We believe education provides people with the opportunity to expand their talents and capabilities. Through our grantmaking, we hope to inspire them to reach their full potential both as individuals and as contributing citizens of a greater community. We are especially interested in programs that make quality education accessible to those who are personally committed.
See Who We Are – Our Priorities – Education for more information regarding our interests in this area.
1871
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
A Better Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Accion
Cambridge, MA
Microfinance Initiatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America
$30,000
Advance Illinois
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
After School Matters
Chicago, IL
STEM Out-of-School Time Programming
$25,000
Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science
Stony Brook Foundation
Stony Brook, NY
General Support
$35,000
America Needs You
Chicago, IL
General Support – Illinois
$30,000
America’s Foundation for Chess
Bellevue, WA
General Support and First Move in Chicago Public Schools
$40,000
The Ayn Rand Institute
Santa Ana, CA
Free Books to Teachers Program – Chicago Area
$25,000
Chicago Conference
$25,000
Bottom Line
Chicago, IL
General Support – Chicago
$35,000
Cara
Chicago, IL
General Support – Chicago
$30,000
Carole Robertson Center for Learning
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Cato Institute
Washington, DC
Student Briefing Program and Liberty Seminar
$25,000
Chicago Community Foundation
Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance
Chicago, IL
Progressive Postsecondary Pathways Support Fund
$25,000
Chicago Literacy Alliance
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Chicago Public Education Fund
Chicago, IL
Fund 5 Support to Promote Principal Quality
in Chicago Public Schools
$75,000
Chicago Public Library Foundation
Chicago, IL
Early Literacy Training for Children’s Library Staff
$25,000
Communities In Schools of Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$40,000
Council for the Advancement of Science Writing
Hedgesville, WV
Graduate School Science Writing Fellowships
and General Support
$25,000
Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund
Chicago, IL
General Support
$50,000
Erie Family Health Foundation
Chicago, IL
Erie Teen Center Reproductive Health Program
$40,000
Healthy Schools Campaign
Chicago, IL
General Support – Chicago
$40,000
High Jump
Chicago, IL
General Support
$45,000
The Horatio Alger Association
Alexandria, VA
Illinois College Scholarship Program
$50,000
i.c.stars
Inner-City Computer Stars Foundation
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
Illinois Network of Charter Schools
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
Institute for Humane Studies
Arlington, VA
Student Programming
$35,000
Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s
Founding Principles and History
Bala Cynwyd, PA
High School Teacher Professional Development in Civics
$26,000
Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest, IL
Class of ‘93 Scholarship Fund for High School Students
$30,000
Literacy Works
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Loyola University Medical Center
Maywood, IL
Pediatric Mobile Health Unit
$25,000
Math Circles of Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Mercatus Center
Arlington, VA
F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
$25,000
MetroSquash
Chicago, IL
General Support
$40,000
Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation
Chicago, IL
Student Advisory Council
$30,000
One Million Degrees
Chicago, IL
General Support
$35,000
OneGoal
Chicago, IL
General Support – Chicago
$35,000
The Partnership for College Completion
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
The Posse Foundation
Chicago, IL
General Support – Chicago
$50,000
Room to Read
San Francisco, CA
General Support for International Literacy Programs
$25,000
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Adolescent Family Center Reproductive Health Program
$40,000
St. John’s Health Foundation
Jackson, WY
Nursing Education Program
$50,000
Spark
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
Start Early
Chicago, IL
General Support for Educare
$30,000
Teach For America
Chicago, IL
General Support – Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana
$35,000
Teton Science Schools
Jackson, WY
General Support
$35,000
The University of Chicago
Consortium on School Research
Chicago, IL
General Support
$25,000
College to Career Transition Study
$25,000
The University of Chicago Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy ▲
2020 Programmatic Grants | Scientific Research
We are interested in programs on the cutting edge of research in specific areas of interest to our Directors that are underfunded or not yet eligible for funding by governmental programs. These programs are typically sponsored by top research institutions, which provide quality assurance oversight and accountability that may not be possible in a less structured environment. Further, the programs often involve predoctoral and postdoctoral scientists who are beginning their research careers. We are particularly interested in programs that encourage early-career scientists to remain engaged in research in their field.
See Who We Are – Our Priorities – Scientific Research for more information regarding our interests in this area.
The Foundation does not accept grantseeker inquiries in medical research.
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Theoretical Gravitational Wave Research – Graduate Student Support
$85,000
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Quantum Communications and Fundamental Space-Time Physics Research – Graduate Student Support
$50,000
California Institute of Technology
Institute for Quantum Information and Matter
Pasedena, CA
Brinson Prize Fellowship
$115,000
Carnegie Institution for Science
Washington, DC
Seismology Monitoring Research
$65,000
Columbia University
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Palisades, NY
Anticipating Earthquakes Initiative
$70,000
Cornell University
Carl Sagan Institute
Ithaca, NY
Search for Life in the Universe Research
$50,000
Cornell University
Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science
Ithaca, NY
Dark Matter along a Filament of Galaxies Project
$50,000
LSST Corporation
Tucson, AZ
Data Science Fellowship Program
$100,000
Northwestern Memorial Foundation
Chicago, IL
Medical Research – Junior Investigator Award
at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
$70,000
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Breast Cancer Research
$50,000
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, CA
Research on the Role of Neoteny in Human-Specific Brain Development
$50,000
Science Philanthropy Alliance
New Venture Fund
Washington, DC
Associate Membership
$75,000
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Cambridge, MA
Detection of Exoplanet Atmospheric Biosignatures Project
$50,000
The University of Arizona Foundation
Tucson, AZ
Spacewatch Observations of Asteroid Lightcurves
$35,000
University of California, Davis
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Davis, CA
Brinson Prize Fellowship
$115,000
The University of Chicago
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Chicago, IL
Brinson Fellowship Program
$85,000
The University of Chicago
Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Chicago, IL
Genetic Basis for the Origin of Limbs Research
$50,000
The University of Chicago
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
Chicago, IL
Brinson Prize Fellowship
$115,000
The University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT
Yellowstone Seismology and Tectonophysics Research
$65,000
National Museum of Wildlife Art ▲
2020 Board Special Interest Grants
These grants represent special family interests and are either one time grants or fall outside of the Foundation’s grantmaking priorities. The Foundation does not accept inquiries in this category.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago
Chicago, IL
General Support
$15,000
Commit2Change
New York, NY
General Support
$1,400
Jackson Hole Land Trust
Jackson, WY
General Support
$35,000
The Living Desert
Palm Desert, CA
General Support
$20,000
Merit School of Music
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson, WY
General Support
$20,000
Teton County Integrated Solid Waste & Recycling
Jackson, WY
Recycling and Household Hazardous Waste Collection, Waste Diversion Outreach and Education
$30,000
Together Education, Inc.
New York, NY
One World Network of Schools
$15,000
Umoja Student Development Corporation
Chicago, IL
General Support
$15,000
Teton Science Schools ▲
2020 Other Grants
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Washington, DC
General Support
$1,000
American Geophysical Union
Washington, DC
General Support
$1,000
Candid
New York, NY
General Support
$1,000
Chalkbeat
Chicago, IL
General Support
$500
Chicago Cares
Chicago, IL
AMPT: Advancing Nonprofits
$25,000
Forefront
Chicago, IL
General Support
$30,000
Grantmakers for Education
Portland, OR
General Support
$1,000
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Washington, DC
General Support
$1,500
Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation
Chicago, IL
Honorarium
$200
National Center for Family Philanthropy
Washington, DC
General Support
$5,000
Stanford University Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
Stanford, CA
Honorarium
$2,500
Professional Development and Technical Assistance Grants
The Foundation provided Professional Development and Technical Assistance grants which benefitted 36 existing grantees.
$75,000