Northwest Indiana Forum Foundation Inc
Portage, IN · EIN 35-1532360. Reported 38 grants totalling $14.8M to 27 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, 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 Northwest Indiana Forum Foundation Inc, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S31Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 49% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $81,541. Half of what it reported fell between $33,531 and $242,953; the smallest was $8,687 and the largest $7,018,840. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana Economic Development Corporation | Indianapolis, IN | $7,225,006 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Urschel Development Corp | Chesterton, IN | $1,500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Healthlinc Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $940,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Center of Workforce Innovations Inc | Gary, IN | $675,613 | 4 | 1 | 2024 |
| Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission | Valparaiso, IN | $614,995 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Saxon Partners LLC | Hingham, MA | $558,551 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gary Chicago International Airport Authority | Gary, IN | $512,113 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Crossroads Young Mens Christian Association Inc | Crown Point, IN | $437,793 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Wecreate Media LLC | Valparaiso, IN | $387,517 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of Northwest Indiana Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $352,814 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northwest Indiana Forum Inc | Portage, IN | $292,517 | 3 | 1 | 2024 |
| Porter County Community Foundation Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $273,082 | 4 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lower Lincoln Eso Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $178,681 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Thomas P Miller & Associates LLC | Indianapolis, IN | $147,156 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| City of Hammond | Hammond, IN | $105,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Innovators Northwest Indiana Inc | Westville, IN | $86,386 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission | Portage, IN | $69,750 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Urban League of Northwest Indiana Inc | Gary, IN | $65,750 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Trustees of Purdue University | West Lafayette, IN | $64,451 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Shirley Heinze Land Tr Inc | Valparaiso, IN | $62,697 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jasper County Economic Development Organization | Rensselaer, IN | $56,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Legacy Foundation Inc | Merrillville, IN | $55,954 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| La Porte County Redevelopment Commission | La Porte, IN | $33,531 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Trustees Indiana University | Detroit, MI | $31,939 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Michigan City Economic Development Corporation | Michigan City, IN | $26,667 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Nwi Food Council | Crown Point, IN | $20,987 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pulaski County Community Development Commission | Winamac, IN | $14,622 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
1 of 27 (4%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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.
- Indiana Economic Development Corporation
TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN HARMONY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT, AND A POSITIVE IMAGE FOR NORTHWEST INDIANA. - Healthlinc Inc
HEALTHLINC MEDICAL RESIDENT PROGRAM - Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission
THE LINC & LINCOLN HIGHWAY GARAGE - Saxon Partners LLC
SAXON INDIANA TRACT 1 (KENMARA) (MUNSTER) - Crossroads Young Mens Christian Associations
TOLLESTON OPPORTUNITY HUB - Gary Chicago International Airport Authority
GARY/CHICAGO INT'L AIRPORT - EAST CORPORATE HANGAR CAMPUS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 10 of 27 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | $206,166 | $206,166 |
| 2023 | 1 | $7,018,840 | $7,018,840 |
| 2024 | 36 | $7,564,566 | $74,891 |
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
96% 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 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.
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 $81,541 -- 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 Northwest Indiana Forum Foundation Inc'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 28 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 8 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: 6100 Southport Rd, Portage, IN, 46368.
EIN 35-1532360 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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