Butler Family Foundation

• If your organisation is educational, religious or charitable under section 170(c), its recorded grants cover a broad mix of sectors, including schools and universities, arts and cultural institutions, health, social services and environmental groups, so your work may fit, although the filing states no geographic focus and its grants are mainly in Illinois, New York, Arizona and Maine, which is a pattern rather than a rule.
• Most of its grants are small: about 8 in 10 of its 183 grants to organisations fall between $5,000 and $50,000, and half were $15,000 or less, so a modest request in that range is a realistic size, although its largest grant was about $450,000.
• The foundation has no standard form and no submission deadline, so a letter requesting a contribution is the way to approach it, and the filing gives no deadline to plan around.
• Repeat giving is significant, since 68% of its grant dollars to organisations went to groups it had also funded in earlier filings, so it is worth checking whether it has funded similar groups before.
• Organisations that are not educational, religious or charitable under section 170(c) should not apply.

The largest grants to organisations in the foundation’s latest filing:

• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc - Metro Ny Region Now Blood Care United · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $451,6502025 tax year
• Ravinia Festival Association · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $160,0002025 tax year
• Jackson Laboratory · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $158,3332025 tax year
• Church of the Holy Spirit · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $156,5002025 tax year
• Art Institute of Chicago · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $116,0002025 tax year
• Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $54,0252025 tax year
• Brooks School · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $38,0002025 tax year
• Colgate University · General charitable, religious, educational or scientific purpose of the donee organization
  $30,0002025 tax year

Grants to organisations listed in the foundation’s Form 990-PF filings. Grants to individuals are not shown.

Figures from the foundation’s IRS Form 990-PF filings. Assets are at fair market value at year end. The document icon links to each year’s filing on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.