Illinois · Private foundation
Helen and Curtis Pinnell 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.
- $648k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 64
- Grants FY2025
- 62
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 27%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $7,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $100,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 41 to 62
- FY2020 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 7
- Total assets, FY2025
- $6.0M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 27% of the organizations Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 13% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $69k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 64 | $649k | 16% |
| FY2024 | 62 | $550k | 27% |
| FY2023 | 42 | $377k | 12% |
| FY2022 | 41 | $370k | 32% |
| FY2021 | 45 | $390k | 2% |
| FY2020 | 46 | $339k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyric Opera of Chicago | $335,000 | 4 | 0% |
| Handel Week Incorporated | $137,500 | 6 | 81% |
| Greater Chicago Food Depository | $130,000 | 6 | 0% |
| The Chicago Academy of Sciences | $115,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Pacific Garden Mission | $115,000 | 6 | n/a |
| Big Shoulders Fund | $108,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Chicago Symphony Orchestra | $100,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Facing Forward to End Homelessness | $86,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Housing Forward | $85,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Evangelical Child and Family Agency | $77,000 | 6 | 1% |
Show all 58 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 34 recipients with no EIN on record ($477k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 51 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Helen V Brach Foundation · Healthy Communities Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Motorola Solutions Foundation
How this is measured
Compare Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation with peer funders
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Helen and Curtis Pinnell 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.
About Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation
- How much does Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation give?
- Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation reported 64 grants totaling $647,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 41 and 62 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
- What does Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (44%), Food & Nutrition (17%), Human Services (9%).
- Who are Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Lyric Opera of Chicago ($335k), Handel Week Incorporated ($138k), Greater Chicago Food Depository ($130k).
- Does Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 27% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Chicago Community Trust, John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, Robert R McCormick Foundation.
- Where is Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation based?
- Helen and Curtis Pinnell Foundation is based in IL.
Play a game based on Helen and Curtis Pinnell’s filings →