How much does Illinois Bar Foundation give?

Illinois Bar Foundation reported 33 itemized grants totaling $329,000, out of $611,107 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 14 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Illinois Bar Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (95%), Housing & Shelter (2%), Employment (1%).

Who are Illinois Bar Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Public Interest Law Initiative ($178k), Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc ($158k), Prairie State Legal Services Inc ($158k).

Does Illinois Bar Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 29% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Illinois Bar Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, The Chicago Bar Foundation.

Where is Illinois Bar Foundation based?

Illinois Bar Foundation is based in IL.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

Illinois · Public charity

Illinois Bar Foundation

The mission of the Illinois Bar Foundation is to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity.

$611k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 33
Itemized grants FY2025: 14
Organizations funded FY2024: 29%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $329k; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $7,500
Largest grant, FY2025: $20,000
Organizations funded a year: 10 to 14; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 3
Total assets, FY2025: $8.9M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 29% of the organizations Illinois Bar Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 20% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Crime & LegalPublic BenefitHuman ServicesCivil RightsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	32	$329k	44%
FY2024	14	$150k	29%
FY2023	11	$130k	0%
FY2022	14	$150k	21%
FY2021	10	$120k	0%
FY2020	12	$138k	25%
FY2019	11	$151k	9%
FY2018	12	$146k	8%

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Crime & Legal$1.4MHousing & Shelter$30kEmployment$14kCivil Rights$8kEducation$8kInternational$8k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Public Interest Law Initiative	$177,500	9	4%
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc	$157,500	9	0%
Prairie State Legal Services Inc	$157,500	9	0%
Illinois Legal Aid Online	$140,000	9	1%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$95,000	9	1%
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$92,500	9	0%
Cabrini Green Legal Aid	$70,000	7	0%
Ascend Justice	$62,500	6	1%
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights	$62,500	7	0%
Law Center for Better Housing	$53,000	7	1%

Show all 37 grantees

All grantees of Illinois Bar Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Public Interest Law Initiative	$177,500	9	4%
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc	$157,500	9	0%
Prairie State Legal Services Inc	$157,500	9	0%
Illinois Legal Aid Online	$140,000	9	1%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$95,000	9	1%
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$92,500	9	0%
Cabrini Green Legal Aid	$70,000	7	0%
Ascend Justice	$62,500	6	1%
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights	$62,500	7	0%
Law Center for Better Housing	$53,000	7	1%
James B Moran Center for Youth Advocacy	$40,000	5	1%
Pro Bono Network	$32,500	4	3%
Legal Council for Health Justice	$30,000	4	0%
Domestic Violence Legal Clinic	$30,000	3	n/a
Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project	$17,500	2	0%
United States Catholic Conference	$17,500	2	n/a
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc	$17,500	2	0%
Uptown People's Law Center	$17,500	2	1%
Immigration Project Inc	$17,000	2	1%
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation	$15,500	2	0%
Life-Span	$15,000	2	0%
World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals	$15,000	1	0%
Chicago Advocate Legal Nfp	$7,500	1	1%
Equip for Equality	$7,500	1	0%
Greenlight Family Services	$7,500	1	0%
North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic	$7,500	1	0%
Chicago Workers' Collaborative NFP	$7,500	1	n/a
Equity Legal Services Inc	$7,500	1	2%
Beyond Legal Aid	$7,500	1	0%
University of Massachusetts Foundation Inc	$7,500	1	0%
The Village Legal and Community Project	$7,500	1	3%
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors	$7,500	1	n/a
Chinese American Service League Inc	$7,500	1	0%
Coalition Legal	$7,500	1	2%
Metropolitan Family Services	$7,500	1	0%
The Family Defense Center	$7,000	1	n/a
Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project	$6,000	1	n/a

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Illinois Bar Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 31.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Lawyers Trust Fund of IllinoisIL62.3× affinity27 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois · Illinois Equal Justice Foundation · The Chicago Bar Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Public Interest Law Initiative · The Sidley Austin Foundation · Equal Justice Works · Chicago Foundation for Women · The Chicago Community Trust · The Resurrection Project · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Circle of Service Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Illinois Bar Foundation with peer funders

About Illinois Bar Foundation

How much does Illinois Bar Foundation give?: Illinois Bar Foundation reported 33 itemized grants totaling $329,000, out of $611,107 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 14 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Illinois Bar Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (95%), Housing & Shelter (2%), Employment (1%).
Who are Illinois Bar Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Public Interest Law Initiative ($178k), Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc ($158k), Prairie State Legal Services Inc ($158k).
Does Illinois Bar Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 29% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Illinois Bar Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, The Chicago Bar Foundation.
Where is Illinois Bar Foundation based?: Illinois Bar Foundation is based in IL.