· Private foundation
Benjamin & Bettina Van Cleave Charitable Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Logan Square Improv | $5,000 |
| Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras | $3,000 |
| Misericordia | $3,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $3,000 |
| WFMT 987WTTW | $3,000 |
| Alternatives Inc | $2,000 |
| Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival | $1,500 |
| Josephinum Academy | $1,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–21, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +48% since the first grant, against -34% for those funded once.
16 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LSLOGAN SQUARE IMPROV3× · 2023–2025 · $13k · revenue +43%
- CYCHICAGO YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS6× · 2020–2025 · $8k · revenue +74%
- CIChicago International Puppet Theater Festival4× · 2021–2025 · $5k · revenue +171%
Funded once
- HEHoward & Evanston Community Centerone grant, 2024 · $2k
- CCCURTAIN CALL COMMUNITY THEATERone grant, 2020 · $1k
- ENECOVIVA NFPone grant, 2021 · $1k · revenue -75%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To enrich the lives of our community through dance education and performance while developing Chicago's native talent pool in a welcoming environment that celebrates multiculturalism & ethnic diversity.
Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.
To present high quality arts programming and musical performances that will educate, enrich and improve the quality of life for the diverse Chicago cultural communities and beyond.
Create connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration.
Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra dedicated to modeling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and both racial and cultural equity in the arts through the universal language of symphonic music. Our core values are built around…
Constellation is a performing arts presenter with an emphasis on forward- thinking practices, particularly in the areas of jazz, improvised, experimental, and contemporary classical music.
Teatro Vista Productions is a non-profit theatre-based company dedicated to multidisciplinary artists of color whose artistic expression on stage and beyond is rooted in the transformative power of owning and telling our own stories.
Pegasus Theatre Chicago is a professional theater approaching 45 years of supporting Chicagos diverse community by producing accessible, socially relevant theatre and promoting the development of new artists for the stage. Our mission is…
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra's mission as a professional orchestra is to utilize the universal expression of music to create profound, inspiring, and personal connections between the people and communities of Chicagos Southland.
Presenting free high-quality classical music performances and music education experiences in the Chicago metropolitan area for people of all ages and degrees of musical awareness so they can experience how music enriches life.
THE ORGANIZATION enriches the lives of the young Chicago of children with their classic fairy tale productions. The ORGANIZATION colorful shows introduce children ages 2 to 10 to the magic of live theater, and inspire children to laugh,…
How this is measured
11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 21 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds LOGAN SQUARE IMPROV ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS ↗
- Who funds Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival ↗
- Who funds Albany Park Theater Project ↗
- Who funds ALTERNATIVES INC ↗
- Who funds CURTAIN CALL COMMUNITY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds ST JOSEPH SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds Howard Area Community Center ↗
- Who funds ECOVIVA NFP ↗
- Who funds CHANGING WORLDS ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATIONS OF MUSIC ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · Mary V Duffy Charitable Foundation · Prince Foundation · The a Montgomery Ward Foundation · WP & HB White Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Circle of Service Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Benjamin & Bettina Van Cleave Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Benjamin & Bettina Van Cleave Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
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How do I get to Benjamin & Bettina Van Cleave Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Benjamin & Bettina Van Cleave Charitable Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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