Last year, more than 100 philanthropic donors signed on to the All by April campaign, which encouraged civic engagement funders to make most or all of their grant commitments by the end of April so that pro-democracy organizations would have the resources and time to prepare for November’s election.
The campaign’s signatories included familiar names — the Democracy Fund, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Brothers Fund — as well as smaller and more place-based funders like the Chicago’s Square One Foundation.
All by April mobilized more than $155 million in new grants and accelerated payments, but given what’s happened so far in 2025, one could convincingly argue that funders’ urgency to support the field is more acute now than before the election.
Civic engagement organizations need resources to push back against the Trump administration’s authoritarian overreach, as well as its antagonistic policies toward LGBTQ+ rights, immigrants’ rights and racial equity. Cognizant that democracy funding typically dries up after an election, funders are also trying to ensure that organizations receive a consistent stream of support so they aren’t scrambling in the run-up to the 2026 midterms. All of this underscores the vital role played by place-based civic engagement funders that, despite their relatively small size, tend to punch above their weight in their respective regions.
With that in mind, here’s a quick look at the Square One Foundation, a family foundation that seeks to expand access to economic and social opportunity for all Chicagoans through its two focus areas, Pathways to Opportunity and Strengthening Our Democracy.
An overview of the Square One Foundation and its leadership
The origins of the Square One Foundation date back to 1946 when Samuel Kersten Jr. cofounded the Chicago-based WaterSaver Faucet Co., which manufactures faucets, valves and related products for use in science laboratories.
In 1957, Kersten and his wife Elaine established the Kersten Family Foundation to support educational, medical and cultural institutions in Chicago. After Samuel and Elaine passed, their son and WaterSaver Faucet Co. President and CEO Steven Kersten and his wife, Priscilla Kersten, assumed leadership of the foundation. In 2007, the foundation changed its name to Square One Foundation.
Priscilla serves as president of the Square One Foundation. The foundation’s most recently available Form 990 for the fiscal year ending December 2023 lists Steve as secretary treasury. He was the foundation’s sole contributor across the previous five fiscal years.
In 2014, Steve and Priscilla made a $10 million gift to the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute to support its mission of improving urban schooling. Steve graduated from the university’s law school in 1980 and sits on its board of trustees. Last December, Square One Foundation grantee the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law announced that Steve had been elected to its board of directors.
Net assets have grown dramatically over the last five years
A review of the Square One Foundation’s Form 990s for the last five fiscal years shows that its net assets grew from $70 million in 2019 to $113 million in 2023. Meanwhile, disbursements for charitable purposes increased a whopping 624%, from $717,918 in 2019 to $5.2 million in 2023.
I attribute the increases in net assets to the favorable market conditions that have swelled foundations’ balance sheets and the fact that Steve Kersten contributed about $6 million per year to Square One Foundation from 2019 to 2023, for a total of $29.5 million.
The Square One Foundation isn’t alone in this regard. One of the biggest takeaways from our analysis of foundations helmed by living donors is that these individuals, many of whom have day jobs, frequently make contributions to their charitable vehicles to reduce their taxable income.
Add it all up, and the foundation operates as a hybrid entity. By earmarking 93% of 2023’s qualifying distributions for grants, it resembles a foundation led by living donors, which tend to operate as lean shops. But it also behaves as a perpetual legacy foundation because unlike some foundations helmed by living donors that run on a pay-as-you-go model, the Square One Foundation had a relatively large amount of net assets on hand ($113 million) for fiscal year ending December 2023.
Related Inside Philanthropy Resources:
For Subscribers Only
A closer look at Square One Foundation’s two priority areas
The Square One Foundation’s Pathways to Opportunity focus area seeks to address disparities in education and employment by supporting organizations that aim to improve urban education systems for children in grades kindergarten through grade 12 boost college access and student success and provide young adults who do not attend college with the skills to lead meaningful lives.
Representative grantee organizations include Chicago’s National Louis University; FrameWorks Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization supporting the nonprofit sector; and the Economic Security Project (ESP), an advocacy organization working to build economic power for all Americans. (Click here for my colleague Michael Kavate’s deep dive into ESP’s efforts to build public options for sectors including housing, childcare and energy.)
The second focus area, Strengthening Our Democracy, funds organizations “that push our civic institutions toward greater inclusivity, accountability, transparency and responsiveness to Chicago’s residents.” Representative grantees include the nonprofit newsroom South Side Weekly, the nonpartisan Chicago Votes and the Movement Voter Project, a progressive, year-round organizing group.
The Square One Foundation’s grants typically range between $25,000 and $75,000. It typically supports small to medium-sized organizations with budgets under $3 million annually. (Emails to the foundation were not returned.)
An overview of Square One Foundation’s 2023 grantmaking
For the most recently available fiscal year ending December 2023, the foundation disbursed 73 grants, approximately 61% of which were awarded to organizations headquartered in Illinois.
The six largest grants flowed to the University of Chicago Odyssey scholarship program ($500,000), the Brennan Center for Justice ($200,000); FrameWorks Institute ($200,000), National Louis University ($136,500); and Chicago’s Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Wisconsin Conservation Voters ($110,000 each).
Last February, Votebeat, a nonprofit outlet under the Civic News Company, announced that thanks to support from the Square One Foundation and other funders, it would be adding Wisconsin to its coverage area. Six months later, Crain’s Chicago Business’ Judith Crown spoke with Amethyst Davis, the founder of Harvey World Herald, an online outlet serving the city of Harvey, Illinois. Crown wrote that “Davis has received the bulk of her startup’s funding” from the Square One Foundation.
Prospective applicants will be happy to know that every grant the foundation disbursed in 2023 was earmarked as “general purpose” — although, as its site notes, it isn’t averse to providing project support. Better yet, the foundation has an open-door policy, which is generally rare for family foundations with low staff overhead. The foundation encourages interested applicants to participate in its two-stage process beginning with filling out a letter of inquiry.
Nothing in my research suggests that the Square One Foundation will dramatically increase its support for civic engagement organizations navigating a fraught post-election environment. That said, we at IP keep an eye on how civic engagement funders react — or don’t react — to counter a White House that’s intent on methodically dismantling democratic norms. This work can take on many forms, and Square One’s past giving suggests it may center its grantmaking on strengthening local news outlets digging into how the administration’s funding cuts are impacting local communities, or ramping up local voter-engagement efforts with an eye toward next year’s midterms.
We’ll also be keeping an eye on the foundation’s Civic Action Capstone Project, a nine-month pilot program that “brings together emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds and all corners of the city who are committed to a better Chicago.”
