· Private foundation
Dr Petra and Owen Rissman Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k7 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $135k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $125k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $75,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FUND | $50,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $30,000 |
| UNICEF | $30,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $30,000 |
| LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL | $25,000 |
| LYRIC OPERA | $10,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $10,000 |
| HOLY SPIRIT MISSIONARY SISTERS | $2,500 |
| SWEETWATER SPECTRUM | $2,500 |
| HISTORIC PRESERVATION FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE | $2,000 |
| SACRED HEART | $2,000 |
| CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN | $1,500 |
| ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $1,100 |
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 (FY17–25, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 40% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 +37% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
21 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $102k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC7× · 2017–2025 · $155k · revenue +98%
University of Chicago5× · 2020–2025 · $150k · revenue +52%- CSChicago Symphony Orchestra9× · 2017–2025 · $145k · revenue +58%
Funded once
- MCMOTT CHILDRENS HOSPITALone grant, 2017 · $25k
- BRBRAIN RESEARCH FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +32%
- CPCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARYone grant, 2023 · $15k
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.
Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…
We are chicago's jesuit, catholic university - a diverse community seeking god in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.
See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.
Ann & robert h. lurie children's hospital of chicago is dedicated to the health and well-being of all children. as the pediatric teaching facility for northwestern university feinberg school of medicine, this commitment drives us to be a…
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
Northwestern memorial healthcare is an integrated healthcare system, consisting of multiple hospitals (including northwestern memorial hospital, an academic medical center) and networks of physicians and healthcare professionals, where the…
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
Education and Research
Uchicago medicine network, inc. supports and encourages health and human service by providing support, directly or indirectly to ingalls memorial hospital, the university of chicago medical center, and other related tax-exempt…
How this is measured
28 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 28 of the 52 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 MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds Endeavor Health Clinical Operations ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds BRAIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
- Who funds UNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds University of Michigan ↗
- Who funds Rush University Medical Center ↗
- Who funds SWEETWATER SPECTRUM INC ↗
- Who funds BREAST CANCER PREVENTION PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds FAMILY SERVICE OF GLENCOE ↗
- Who funds MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE ↗
- Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC PULLMAN FOUNDATION DBA FRIENDS OF PULLMAN ↗
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: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Dr Petra and Owen Rissman Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Dr Petra and Owen Rissman Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Dr Petra and Owen Rissman’s filings →