Leva Family Foundation

Leva Family Foundation is a small, closely-held family philanthropy based in Highland Park, IL, established in August 2016 by Craig Leva (Treasurer), Monette Leva (Secretary), and director Gregory Mann — none of whom draws compensation, underscoring its hands-on, personal-giving character. With $8.76M in assets as of FY2025 (up from $3.24M in FY2019, a 2.7x increase in six years), the foundation functions less like an institutional grantmaker running an open RFP process and more like a vehicle for the Leva family's own philanthropic relationships. Independent 990 analysis from Instrumentl and Grantable both describe it as making contributions "to preselected charitable organizations," and Granted's own record shows no published application form, deadline, or grants-page URL.

Grantee data spanning 347 tracked grants worth $957,058 shows a clear favor for organizations the family already has ties to: 247 of 347 grants (71%) went to Illinois recipients, concentrated in Highland Park, Evanston, and Chicago's North Shore. Repeat funding is the norm, not the exception — Jewish United Fund received six separate grants totaling $119,500, Highland Park Community Foundation received six grants totaling $43,000, and Mercy Home for Boys and Girls received nine grants over time. This pattern signals that once an organization enters the Leva family's circle, it tends to receive recurring, modest annual support rather than a single large award.

For organizations without an existing relationship, the realistic path is not a cold proposal but visibility and introduction: sitting on shared boards (Highland Park Community Foundation, Lake County Community Foundation), participating in the same Jewish federated giving networks (Jewish United Fund), or being active in North Shore violence-prevention, homelessness, or youth-development coalitions that already touch Leva-funded groups like Heartland Alliance's READI Chicago, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, and Connections for the Homeless. First-time contacts should expect slow, relationship-first cultivation — a warm introduction from a current grantee or board connection, followed by informal conversation — rather than a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline. With zero officer compensation and no program staff, decisions almost certainly run directly through Craig and Monette Leva rather than a review committee.

The Leva Family Foundation's giving has scaled with its asset base: total giving rose from $230,298 in FY2019 to $416,410 in FY2023, and FY2025 data via ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer shows total expenses of $546,360 against $1,538,715 in revenue — implying charitable disbursements in roughly the $475,000-$510,000 range at the foundation's historical 87-94% payout-to-expense ratio. Assets have nearly tripled since 2019 ($3.24M to $8.76M), driven substantially by consistent family contributions ($1,001,500 received in both FY2022 and FY2023) rather than investment performance alone.

Grant sizes skew small and numerous. Granted's typical-grant-size data (122 tracked awards) shows a median of $2,500, an average of $3,669, and a full range of $33 to $66,785 — this is a foundation writing many modest checks, not a handful of transformative ones. The cumulative grantee dataset (347 grants, $957,058 total, $2,758 average) reinforces this: even the foundation's largest single relationship, Jewish United Fund, received its $119,500 across six separate gifts rather than one lump sum.

Programmatically, funding clusters around five themes drawn from IRS 990 grant purposes: (1) community safety/violence prevention — Chicago Fund for Safe & Peaceful Communities (~$95,000 across 4 gifts), Heartland Alliance's READI Chicago (~$40,000 combined), Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, and BUILD; (2) hunger/food security — Northern Illinois Food Bank ($17,500/4 grants), Greater Chicago Food Depository, and Beth Emet Soup Kitchen ($14,000/9 grants); (3) Jewish community and international health — Jewish United Fund ($119,500 total) and Partners in Health ($55,000/4 grants, including a Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership line); (4) disease/health research — Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation ($10,590/7 grants), Cancer Wellness Center, and Gastric Cancer Foundation; and (5) youth scholarships and homelessness services — Evanston Scholars, College Bound Opportunities, Connections for the Homeless, and Facing Forward to End Homelessness. Geographically, 71% of tracked grants (247 of 347) go to Illinois nonprofits, with secondary clusters in New York (24), California (19), and Minnesota (10) — most likely reflecting national organizations (Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health) headquartered outside IL rather than active out-of-state outreach.

All five peers cluster within a roughly $10,000 band of Leva's $8.76M asset base, marking them as Granted's closest size-matched family foundations nationally — but none publish giving totals or application guidance in this dataset, and two lack even a public website. That opacity is itself instructive: unlike Leva, which discloses IRS Form 990 grant-level detail covering 347 itemized gifts, most peers in this asset class file with minimal public grantee transparency. Grant seekers should assume the same relationship-first posture applies across this whole peer set — geographic and community proximity plus a personal introduction, not a competitive RFP, is the realistic path into any of these six-to-nine-figure family foundations.

Web searches for "Leva Family Foundation" news in 2025-2026 turned up no foundation-specific press releases, leadership changes, or grant announcements — a result consistent with a quiet, non-publicity-seeking family vehicle with zero paid staff. Note also a naming collision worth flagging: the website on file for this foundation, leva.org, actually belongs to LEVA International, an unrelated forensic-video-analysis training and certification association based in Whitesboro, TX — not the Highland Park, IL family foundation. Grant seekers should disregard leva.org as a source for this funder; no verified official web presence was located during this research.

The most concrete recent-activity signal is financial: ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer shows FY2025 total assets of $8,764,420 (up from $6,788,156 in FY2023) and FY2025 revenue of $1,538,715 against $546,360 in expenses — indicating the foundation is still actively growing its corpus through family contributions ($1,001,500 received in both FY2022 and FY2023) rather than winding down. Leadership has been stable across all available filings: Craig Leva (Treasurer), Monette Leva (Secretary), and Gregory Mann (Director) appear consistently across years with no compensation and no reported turnover.

Given the absence of public news or a verified website, grant seekers should treat the foundation's annual Form 990-PF (EIN 81-2973239, filed with the IRS and mirrored on ProPublica) as the only reliable source for tracking new grantees or shifting priorities — not press coverage, a newsletter, or social media, none of which this foundation appears to maintain.

Granted's database flags Leva Family Foundation as "accepting applications," but this should be read cautiously: there is no published application form, deadline, online portal, or grants-page URL, and independent 990 analysis from Instrumentl and Grantable both describe the foundation as making contributions "to preselected charitable organizations" rather than reviewing open submissions. Treat this as an invitation-only funder in practice, even though it has not formally closed its doors on paper.

Given that reality, the highest-leverage approach is relationship-building, not proposal-writing: - Identify a warm path in. The foundation's giving concentrates in Highland Park, Evanston, and North Shore Chicago community institutions — Highland Park Community Foundation, Lake County Community Foundation, and the Jewish United Fund network appear repeatedly as both direct grantees and likely convening points. A board seat, volunteer role, or shared donor relationship with these organizations is a far more realistic entry point than a cold letter of inquiry. - Match the mission cluster. Nearly every grantee falls into one of five buckets: community safety/violence prevention, hunger relief, Jewish community/international health, cancer or disease research, and youth scholarships/homelessness services. Organizations outside these five themes are unlikely to be a fit regardless of outreach quality. - Expect modest, recurring support, not one transformative grant. With a median award of $2,500 and average of $3,669, first-time funding from Leva is likely to be a small gift ($1,000-$10,000 range) that tests the relationship rather than fully funds a program — plan your ask and budget narrative accordingly. - Reach out directly and personally. With Craig Leva listed as the contact ("% Craig Leva," 1773 Spruce Ave, Highland Park, IL 60035, (773) 267-5770) and zero program staff, outreach should go directly to the family rather than a grants department — a personal letter or introduction is more likely to land than a portal submission, since none exists. - Common mistake to avoid: submitting a large-ask, generic proposal assuming a formal RFP process. There is none — no deadline, no online form, and no stated funding cycle in IRS or public records, and the foundation's listed website (leva.org) does not actually belong to this organization.