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John R Halligan Charitable Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

John R Halligan Charitable Fund

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.

$2.8M
Granted FY2025still arriving
112
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$274k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0193% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$13MAnimals$2.4MScience & Tech$548kHuman Services$519kEnvironment$346kEducation$252kHealth$223kRecreation & Sports$170kOther$0
02FY2025 · 112 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k41 grants · $246k
  • $10k–50k56 grants · $1.3M
  • $50k–250k14 grants · $1.1M
  • $250k+1 grant · $274k
$13,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$18M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO$274,062
CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM$100,000
HAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY$100,000
HAWAII OPERA THEATRE$100,000
Individual grant recipient$95,000
PBS HAWAII$90,000
HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART$90,000
BISHOP MUSEUM$80,000
HONOLULU ZOO SOCIETY$70,000
HAWAII SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$70,000
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO$60,000
CHICAGO OPERA THEATRE$55,000
DIAMOND HEAD THEATRE$53,500
CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN$50,000
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$50,000
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 (FY22–25, $75k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%JEWISH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES: $20k → 14%JEWISH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES: $20k → 14%JEWISH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES: $18k → 14%JEWISH CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES: $18k → 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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$21M · 120 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +19% for those funded once.

120 repeat relationships: 109 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

120
3

Total granted

$21M
$11k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%
+19%

Still filing today

66%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $11k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureAnimalsEducationEnvironmentRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesOther
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

  • LO
    Lyric Opera of Chicago
    9× · 2017–2025 · $2.2M · revenue +33%
  • HO
    HAWAII OPERA THEATRE
    9× · 2017–2025 · $740k · revenue +12%
  • HM
    HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART
    9× · 2017–2025 · $710k · revenue +0%

Funded once

  • OO
    ORPAHNS OF THE STORM ANIMAL SHELTER
    one grant, 2017 · $5k
  • HC
    HAWAIIAN CONSERVATION ALLIANCE FUND
    one grant, 2017 · $3k
  • CF
    CHICAGO FOLKS OPERETTA NFP
    one grant, 2023 · $3k · 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
Chamber Opera of Chicago
—
2
Chicago Wind Symphony
Arts & Culture
3
Chicago a Cappella

Chicago a cappella advances the art and appreciation of ensemble singing. the organization produces an annual series of concerts in the greater chicago area, produces educational outreach programs, creates studio recordings as well as live…

Arts & Culture
4
The Chicago High School for the Arts

The chicago high school for the arts (chiarts) develops the next generation of diverse, artistically promising scholar-artists through intensive pre-professional training in the arts, combined with a comprehensive college preparatory…

Education
5
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra

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.

Arts & Culture
6
Chicago Harp Quartet
—
7
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious.

Arts & Culture
8
Aloha Performing Arts Company

The mission of the aloha theatre is to enrich the lives of hawaii residents and visitors by providing quality live theatre, performing arts education, and a venue for artistic expression.

Arts & Culture
9
Constellation Performing Arts

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.

Arts & Culture
10
Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University ("The Auditorium"), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, is committed to presenting the finest in international, cultural, community and educational programming to Chicago and to the…

Arts & Culture
11
Houston Grand Opera Association Inc

The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We will do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice.(Continued on Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
12
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Inc

Strengthen communities by providing high-quality and innovative artistic experiences that entertain, inspire, and unite diverse audiences.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Theatre Group Inc; the most unlike its peers is Opera Festival of Chicago. 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

84 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. 84 of the 126 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
83/84
Grantees still filing
63/84
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Lyric Opera of Chicago: $2,202,903 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoHAWAII OPERA THEATRE: $740,000 · Arts & CultureHAWAII OPERA THEATREHONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART: $710,000 · Arts & CultureHONOLULU MUSEUM OF ARTHAWAII PUBLIC TELEVISION FOUNDATION DBA PBS HAWAII: $685,000 · Arts & CultureHAWAII PUBLIC TELEVISION FOUNDATION DBA PBS HAWAIIBISHOP MUSEUM: $620,000 · Arts & CultureBISHOP MUSEUMCHICAGO OPERA THEATER: $445,000 · Arts & CultureChicago Symphony Orchestra: $395,000 · Arts & Culture+49 more: $5,000,500 · Arts & Culture+49 moreCHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM: $760,000 · OtherCHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUMHONOLULU ZOO SOCIETY: $540,000 · OtherHONOLULU ZOO SOCIETYDIAMOND HEAD THEATRE: $442,000 · OtherDIAMOND HEAD THEATREHAWAII CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER: $355,000 · OtherWTTW CHANNEL 11: $355,000 · OtherANTI-CRUELTY SOCIETY OF CHICAGO: $350,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $350,000 · OtherADLER PLANETARIUM AND ASTRONOMY MUSEUM: $322,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $287,500 · Other+48 more: $3,247,000 · Other+48 moreHAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY: $740,000 · AnimalsHAWAIIAN …Chicago Zoological Society: $338,500 · AnimalsChicago Z…SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $317,500 · AnimalsSHEDD AQU…LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $150,000 · AnimalsLINCOLN P…PAWS CHICAGO: $100,000 · AnimalsPAWS CHIC…+2 more: $68,000 · AnimalsTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $465,000 · EducationTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $169,000 · EducationCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $352,500 · EnvironmentGARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE: $215,000 · EnvironmentLINCOLN PARK CONSERVANCY: $195,000 · Recreation & SportsJewish Child and Family Services: $75,000 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$10,798,403Other$7,009,000Animals$1,714,000Education$634,000Environment$567,500Recreation & Sports$195,000Human Services$75,000

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 budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $2,202,903 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetHAWAII OPERA THEATRE: $740,000 over 9y, 4.6% of budgetHAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY: $740,000 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetHONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART: $710,000 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetHAWAII PUBLIC TELEVISION FOUNDATION DBA PBS HAWAII: $685,000 over 9y, 0.9% of budgetBISHOP MUSEUM: $620,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $465,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO OPERA THEATER: $445,000 over 9y, 2.6% of budgetDIAMOND HEAD THEATRE: $442,000 over 9y, 1.5% of budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra: $395,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $352,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: $342,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Zoological Society: $338,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $317,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $317,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetHAWAII SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $315,000 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetKenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry: $305,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetKOHL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF GREATER CHICAGO INC: $265,000 over 9y, 1.2% of budgetCHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC: $235,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetHAWAII PUBLIC RADIO: $217,500 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetCHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC: $215,000 over 9y, 2.0% of budgetGARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE: $215,000 over 9y, 1.3% of budgetLINCOLN PARK CONSERVANCY: $195,000 over 9y, 3.1% of budgetTHE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $182,500 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetKESHET: $177,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetHAWAII THEATRE CENTER: $172,500 over 9y, 1.7% of budgetTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $169,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetPEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM: $152,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $150,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetHONOLULU THEATRE FOR YOUTH: $131,000 over 9y, 1.0% of budgetHAWAII YOUTH SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $131,000 over 9y, 1.2% of budgetMusic Theatre Works Inc: $130,000 over 9y, 2.1% of budgetHawaii Youth Opera Chorus: $126,000 over 9y, 7.4% of budgetChicago Master Singers: $126,000 over 9y, 13% of budgetLOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY: $121,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetSTEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY: $121,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHICAGO ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS: $112,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetHISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUNDATION: $107,000 over 9y, 1.2% of budgetChicago Architecture Foundation: $103,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetCHAMBER MUSIC HAWAII: $103,000 over 9y, 5.0% of budgetWriters Theatre Inc: $100,500 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetHUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO: $100,500 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetRagdale Foundation: $100,500 over 9y, 1.0% of budgetPAWS CHICAGO: $100,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY: $98,000 over 9y, 1.3% of budgetUNITING VOICES: $87,500 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetMERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $83,500 over 9y, 0.9% of budgetClassical Music Chicago: $82,000 over 9y, 2.5% 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.

  • Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII OPERA THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds HAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII PUBLIC TELEVISION FOUNDATION DBA PBS HAWAII ↗
  • Who funds BISHOP MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO OPERA THEATER ↗
  • Who funds DIAMOND HEAD THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Zoological Society ↗
  • Who funds SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
  • Who funds Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry ↗
  • Who funds KOHL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF GREATER CHICAGO INC ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII PUBLIC RADIO ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC ↗
  • Who funds GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds LINCOLN PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
  • Who funds THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
  • Who funds KESHET ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII THEATRE CENTER ↗
  • Who funds THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY ↗
  • Who funds PEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗

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.

Ncrc Community Develo…John D and Catherine …J Watumull FundAtherton Family Found…The Cades FoundationThe Chicago Community…Kosasa FoundationPolk Bros Foundation …Hawaii Community Rein…Hawaii Council for Hu…Cooke Foundation Limi…Tradewind Group Found…
Ncrc Community Development Fund IncDC44.3× affinity25 shared granteesties to 3 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · J Watumull Fund · Atherton Family Foundation · The Cades Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Kosasa Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation · Hawaii Council for Humanities · Cooke Foundation Limited · Tradewind Group 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization John R Halligan Charitable Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John R Halligan Charitable Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%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
    26report 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 126 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on John R Halligan’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