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Illinois Humanities Council Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Illinois Humanities Council Inc

Fostering a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of individuals and communities.

$639k
Granted FY2023
30
Grants FY2023
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2023.

Arts & Culture$1.1MCrime & Legal$361kEducation$262kPublic Safety & Disaster$113kHuman Services$111kCivil Rights$70kYouth Development$50kCommunity Improvement$50kOther$0
02FY2023 · 30 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 30 grants below total $285,850, the rows itemized in this filing. The $639,150 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $353,300 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k20 grants · $137k
  • $10k–50k10 grants · $149k
$8,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$5.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE HUB-ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER$20,000
CARBONDALE COMMUNITY ARTS INC$20,000
KNOX COLLEGE$19,550
SAINT LEONARD'S MINISTRIES$18,000
RESILIENCE PARTNERS NFP$14,250
CHICAGO COMMUNITY BOND FUND$14,000
LEGACY TRAINING INC$13,250
RESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION$10,250
PRISON AND NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS EDUCATION PROJECT$10,000
LEGACY TRAINING INC$10,000
BEYOND THE WALLS THE MOVEMENT NFP$8,000
DARREN B EASTERLING CENTER OF RESTORATIVE PRACTICES$8,000
URBANA CHAMPAIN INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER$8,000
PIVEN THEATRE WORKSHOP$8,000
NORTH PARK UNIVERSITY$8,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY19–23, $129k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%MindsEye Radio: $8k → 16%LEGACY TRAINING INC: $13k → 25%Legacy Training Inc: $12k → 25%Legacy Training Inc: $10k → 25%LEGACY TRAINING INC: $10k → 25%Voices and Faces Project: $15k → 14%THE VOICES AND FACES PROJECT: $10k → 14%VOICES AND FACES PROJECT: $6k → 14%Voices and Faces Project: $6k → 14%ORGANIC ONENESS: $5k → 14%DARREN B EASTERLING CENTER OF RESTORATIVE PRACTICES: $8k → 14%CENTRAL AMERICAN MARTYRS CTR: $18k → 14%SEGUNDO RUIZ BELVIS CULTURAL: $8k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

42%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$913k · 37 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.

37 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2023, 23 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

37
131

Total granted

$913k
$1.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+12%

Still filing today

89%
66%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $118k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesCivil RightsCrime & LegalCommunity ImprovementOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • FW
    FREE WRITE ARTS & LITERACY NFP
    3× · 2018–2020 · $47k · revenue +44%
  • RJ
    RESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION
    4× · 2019–2023 · $46k · revenue +31%
  • CN
    CONTEXTOS NFP
    5× · 2018–2024 · $40k · revenue +163%

Funded once

  • CA
    CENTRAL AMERICAN MARTYRS CENTER
    one grant, 2020 · $18k · revenue +15%
  • F
    FOREFRONTgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $18k · revenue +67%
  • M1
    MARCH 13 FUND
    one grant, 2021 · $17k · revenue -19%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Threewalls

Threewalls is dedicated to fostering contemporary art practices that respond to lived experiences, encouraging connections beyond art through performance, live exhibits, publications, all while connected segregated communities throughout…

Arts & Culture
2
Chicago Humanities Festival

To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.

Arts & Culture
3
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
4
Chicago Cultural Mile Association
—
5
Equity Arts

EQUITY ARTS is a center for the creative economy that advances racial equity and wealth-building for artists and entrepreneurs. This reparative ownership model preserves space for synergistic exchanges between value-aligned partners. The…

—
6
Arts Illiana Inc

To promote the arts and provide an information system for and about the arts.

Arts & Culture
7
Floating Museum Nfp

Floating Museum is an arts collective that creates new models exploring relationships between art, community, architecture, and public institutions.

Arts & Culture
8
Chicago Art Department

Cultivates new and emerging Chicago artists, and aims to benefit artists by exploring art and learning. Through exhibitions, artist residencies, classes/workshops and community building, we are dedicated to cultivating new voices, ideas,…

Arts & Culture
9
Chicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-Chicago

Cinema/Chicago, the non-profit 501(c)(3) presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, enriches the community through year-round programming devoted to international and independent cinema. We strengthen communication…

Arts & Culture
10
3ARTS Inc

Founded in 1912, with a history centered on women artists, 3Arts, Inc. (the Organization) is an Illinois not-for-profit organization that supports artists working in the performing, teaching, and visual arts in the Chicago metropolitan…

Arts & Culture
11
Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago

The mission of the Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago is to collectively advance Black excellence in the work of the Black arts and culture sector.

Arts & Culture
12
Free Street Theater

Free Street Theater creates afforable, inclusive and innovative theater in communities across Chicago Seeking new and effective ways to challenge racial and economic segregation through the arts.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is American Indian Center; the most unlike its peers is African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society of Il Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

156 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. 156 of the 183 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
48
Early backer (in before they grew)
145/156
Grantees still filing
90/156
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HUB-ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER: $37,000 · Arts & CultureCarbondale Community Arts Incorporated: $28,500 · Arts & CultureChicago Cultural Alliance: $27,500 · Arts & CultureYOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS: $25,500 · Arts & Culture+63 more: $642,094 · Arts & Culture+63 moreFREE WRITE ARTS & LITERACY NFP: $46,600 · OtherFREE WRITE ARTS & LITERACY NFPNORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $37,200 · OtherCONTEXTOS NFP: $40,000 · Other+75 more: $730,066 · Other+75 moreMILLIKIN UNIVERSITY: $33,200 · EducationKNOX COLLEGE: $25,550 · EducationAdler University: $22,100 · Education826CHI INC: $19,600 · EducationDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $12,200 · EducationHistoric Marbold Farmstead Association: $10,000 · EducationILLINOIS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $10,000 · EducationNORTH PARK UNIVERSITY: $8,000 · EducationCHICAGO FREEDOM SCHOOL: $8,000 · EducationPUBLIC NARRATIVE: $7,500 · EducationBenedictine University: $6,000 · EducationUniversity if Illinois Urbana-Champaign Black Alumni Network NFP: $6,000 · Education+1 more: $5,000 · EducationLegacy Training and Development Corporation: $45,350 · Human ServicesTHE VOICES & FACES PROJECT: $37,450 · Human ServicesCENTRAL AMERICAN MARTYRS CENTER: $18,000 · Human ServicesDARREN B EASTERLING CENTER FOR RESTORATIVE PRACTICES: $8,000 · Human ServicesMindsEye Radio: $7,500 · Human ServicesSegundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center: $7,500 · Human ServicesWOMEN INITIATING NEW DIRECTIONS: $6,000 · Human ServicesORGANIC ONENESS: $5,100 · Human ServicesRESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION: $45,650 · Civil RightsSYLVIA WOODS JOSEPHINE WYATT AND CLARICE DURHAM: $28,600 · Civil RightsCHANGING WORLDS: $21,000 · Civil RightsChicago Votes: $16,000 · Civil RightsTHE REALITEA PROJECT INC: $10,000 · Civil RightsSTRATEGY FOR ACCESS FOUNDATION NFP: $7,100 · Civil RightsInvisible Institute: $6,200 · Civil RightsCHICAGO COMMUNITY BOND FUND: $24,000 · Crime & LegalThe Juvenile Justice Initiative Attn Elizabeth Clarke: $20,000 · Crime & LegalFIRST FOLLOWERS: $18,000 · Crime & LegalPrison and Neighborhood Arts-Education Project: $10,000 · Crime & LegalREADING BETWEEN THE LINES NFP: $7,500 · Crime & LegalCircles and Ciphers: $15,200 · Youth DevelopmentBETTER BOYS FOUNDATION: $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentBRIGHT STAR COMMUNITY OUTREACH CORP: $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentFREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP: $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentA GIFT OF LOVE CHARITY INC: $6,000 · Youth Development
Arts & Culture$760,594Other$853,866Education$173,150Human Services$134,900Civil Rights$134,550Crime & Legal$79,500Youth Development$61,200

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFREE WRITE ARTS & LITERACY NFP: $46,600 over 3y, 2.7% of budgetRESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION: $45,650 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetLegacy Training and Development Corporation: $45,350 over 3y, 28% of budgetCONTEXTOS NFP: $40,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetTHE VOICES & FACES PROJECT: $37,450 over 4y, 2.8% of budgetNORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $37,200 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetHUB-ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER: $37,000 over 4y, 12% of budgetMILLIKIN UNIVERSITY: $33,200 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSYLVIA WOODS JOSEPHINE WYATT AND CLARICE DURHAM: $28,600 over 3y, 21% of budgetCarbondale Community Arts Incorporated: $28,500 over 3y, 4.0% of budgetCROSSROADS FUND INC: $28,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Cultural Alliance: $27,500 over 3y, 3.7% of budgetKNOX COLLEGE: $25,550 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS: $25,500 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetCHICAGO COMMUNITY BOND FUND: $24,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetBRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS: $24,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetFIFTH HOUSE ENSEMBLE: $23,100 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetSTORYCORPS INC: $23,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetAdler University: $22,100 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetResilience Partners NFP: $21,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCOLLABORACTION THEATRE CO: $21,100 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetCHANGING WORLDS: $21,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetThe Juvenile Justice Initiative Attn Elizabeth Clarke: $20,000 over 2y, 9.9% of budget826CHI INC: $19,600 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetSAVANNA HISTORICAL SOCIETY NFP: $18,500 over 2y, 17% of budgetSt Leonard's Ministries: $18,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFIRST FOLLOWERS: $18,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetCENTRAL AMERICAN MARTYRS CENTER: $18,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetSIXTY INCHES FROM CENTER NFP: $17,900 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetFOREFRONT: $17,700 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCHICAGO PUBLIC ART GROUP: $17,600 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetMARCH 13 FUND: $17,100 over 1y, 7.6% of budgetGICHIGAMIIN INDIGENOUS NATIONS MUSEUM INC: $17,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetStorycatchers: $16,100 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetChicago Votes: $16,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetFull Spectrum Features NFP: $15,750 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetCHICAGO VIDEO PROJECT: $15,000 over 2y, 9.1% of budgetBRIGHT STAR COMMUNITY OUTREACH CORP: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPiven Theatre Workshop: $14,994 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetAbout Face Theatre Collective Inc: $13,100 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetCHICAGO LATINO THEATER ALLIANCE: $12,600 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $12,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDesign Museum of Chicago: $12,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetKUUMBA LYNX: $11,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetLIBRE CARBONDALE FOOD AUTONOMY: $10,100 over 1y, 26% of budgetCHICAGO CHILDREN'S THEATRE: $10,100 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetExperimental Sound Studio: $10,100 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetPrison and Neighborhood Arts-Education Project: $10,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budget
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.

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.

Field Foundation of I…Gaylord and Dorothy D…Polk Bros Foundation …John D and Catherine …The Chicago Community…Crossroads Fund IncLloyd a Fry FoundationThe Joyce FoundationBuilders Vision Found…Ncrc Community Develo…Alphawood FoundationChicago Foundation fo…
Field Foundation of IllinoisIL106.6× affinity56 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Field Foundation of Illinois · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Crossroads Fund Inc · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · Builders Vision Foundation · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · Alphawood Foundation · Chicago Foundation for Women

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Illinois Humanities Council Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Illinois Humanities Council Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    47report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 183 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $667k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Illinois Humanities Council’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home