Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana Inc
Munster, IN · EIN 31-1128781. Reported 80 grants totalling $1,425,576 to 36 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 Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana Inc, the IRS classifies it as a support organization for one specific institution (NTEE T11).
- How spread out its giving is. 36 distinct organizations, with 21% 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. 76% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $12,250. Half of what it reported fell between $8,700 and $21,000; the smallest was $5,100 and the largest $74,270. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trustees of Purdue University | West Lafayette, IN | $297,950 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| United Way of Northwest Indiana Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $130,618 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Tradewinds Services Inc | Merrillville, IN | $95,800 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| South Shore Arts Inc | Munster, IN | $93,360 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Northwest Indiana Symphony Society Inc | Munster, IN | $89,325 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Northwest Indiana Hindu Religious Center | Merrillville, IN | $83,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Indian Medical Association of Northwest Indiana | Merrillville, IN | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Greater Northwest Indiana Inc | Portage, IN | $60,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Gary Inc | Gary, IN | $59,400 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Indiana Hospital Association Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $52,219 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Hospice of the Calumet Area Inc | Munster, IN | $41,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lake Area United Way | Griffith, IN | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Ivy Tech Foundation Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $37,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Calumet Council Boy Scouts of America | Munster, IN | $22,900 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Boy Scouts of America | Chicago, IL | $22,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Iha Hospital Assistance Foundation Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $20,411 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Munster High School | Munster, IN | $16,600 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce | Valparaiso, IN | $16,125 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana | Gary, IN | $15,720 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Indiana University Foundation | Bloomington, IN | $15,150 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Laini Fluellen Charities Inc | Highland, IN | $15,100 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest in | Merrillville, IN | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana Inc | Merrillville, IN | $11,324 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Legacy Foundation Inc | Merrillville, IN | $10,060 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Campagna Academy Inc | Schererville, IN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| City of East Chicago | East Chicago, IN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Valparaiso University | Valparaiso, IN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Calumet College | Whiting, IN | $6,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| City of Hammond | Hammond, IN | $6,569 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Munster Chamber of Commerce Inc | Munster, IN | $6,435 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northwest Indiana Cancer Kids Inc | Schererville, IN | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Trinity Christian College Association | Crestwood, IL | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Valparaiso Department of Parks & Recreation | Valparaiso, IN | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Nwi Parkinsons | Crown Point, IN | $5,760 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Crossroads Regional Chamber of Commerce Inc | Merrillville, IN | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mental Health America of Lake County Inc | Hammond, IN | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
18 of 36 (50%) 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 kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 16 of 36 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 | 13 | $219,011 | $11,000 |
| 2021 | 11 | $218,003 | $18,000 |
| 2022 | 15 | $281,471 | $15,000 |
| 2023 | 17 | $317,480 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 24 | $389,611 | $10,630 |
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
98% of its giving went to organizations in Indiana. 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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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $12,250 -- 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 Indiana.
- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana Inc'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 21 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 3 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: 10010 Donald S Powers Dr 201, Munster, IN, 46321.
EIN 31-1128781 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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