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Plinth

· Private foundation

Nib Foundation

Its FY2018 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$2.7M
Granted FY2018
28
Grants FY2018
7
States reached
$560k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2018.

Arts & Culture$3.2MAnimals$280kEnvironment$90kFood & Nutrition$15k
02FY2018 · 28 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2018

  • Under $10k6 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k15 grants · $327k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $410k
  • $250k+4 grants · $1.9M
$15,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JOFFREY BALLET$560,000
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO$550,000
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE$495,000
METROPOLITAN OPERA$300,000
AUDITORIUM THEATRE OF ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY$200,000
PAWS$150,000
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER$60,000
Individual grant recipient$45,000
RUTH PAGE CIVIC BALLET OF CHICAGO$40,000
Individual grant recipient$40,000
MUSIC THEATER WORKS$37,000
REAL CRUZAN CATS$35,000
Individual grant recipient$25,000
LAKESIDE PRIDE MUSIC ENTERPRISE$15,000
CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY$15,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%REAL CRUZAN CATS: $35k → 8%JOYCE THEATRE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%PEACEFUL VALLEY DONKEY RESCUE: $10k → 13%NATIONAL PARK FEDERATION: $10k → 14%MONTGOMERY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $150k → 18%FRIED'S CAT SHELTER INC: $5k → 15%CHICAGO FESTIVAL BALLET: $5k → 7%RAVINIA FESTIVAL: $10k → 8%PAWS: $150k → 14%REAL CRUZAN CATS: $5k → 8%METROPOLITAN OPERA: $300k → 17%MONTGOMERY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $45k → 18%PAWS: $50k → 14%AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE: $495k → 17%BALLET CHICAGO: $40k → 14%AUDITORIUM THEATRE OF ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY: $200k → 14%BALLET CHICAGO: $10k → 14%AUDITORIUM THEATRE OF ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY: $100k → 14%OPENLANDS PROJECT: $5k → 14%CEDILLE RECORDS: $25k → 14%FELINES AND CANINES: $5k → 14%ENSEMBLE ESPAGNOLE: $15k → 14%FELINES AND CANINES: $5k → 14%ENSEMBLE ESPAGNOLE: $10k → 14%THE PAGE RUTH FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%RUTH PAGE CIVIC BALLET OF CHICAGO: $40k → 14%MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO: $15k → 14%CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE: $5k → 14%LAKESIDE PRIDE MUSIC ENTERPRISE: $15k → 14%LAKESIDE PRIDE MUSIC ENTERPRISE: $10k → 14%TOUCHED BY AN ANIMAL: $5k → 14%MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $10k → 14%MUSIC THEATER WORKS: $37k → 14%DANCE FOR LIFE: $3k → 14%CHICAGO DANCERS UNITED: $3k → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $550k → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $200k → 14%CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $15k → 14%CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $10k → 14%JOFFREY BALLET: $560k → 14%JOFFREY BALLET: $250k → 14%ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER: $60k → 14%ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER: $25k → 14%HARRIS THEATRE FOR MUSIC AND DANCE: $10k → 14%CHICAGO OPERA THEATRE: $10k → 14%HARRIS THEATRE FOR MUSIC AND DANCE: $10k → 14%RED DOOR ANIMAL SHELTER: $5k → 14%CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $15k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

71%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.5M · 13 repeat orgs$1.0M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +66% since the first grant, against +54% for the ones you funded once.

13 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
8

Total granted

$2.5M
$58k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+54%

Still filing today

77%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2018, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $975k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18
Arts & CultureAnimalsEnvironmentOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • TJ
    THE JOFFREY BALLET
    2× · 2017–2018 · $810k · revenue +90%
  • LO
    Lyric Opera of Chicago
    2× · 2017–2018 · $750k · revenue +33%
  • AT
    Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc
    2× · 2017–2018 · $300k · revenue +46%

Funded once

  • MO
    MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
    one grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +0%
  • TP
    THE PAGE RUTH FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $10k
  • RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue +54%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Chamber Opera of Chicago
—
2
Classical Music Chicago

Presenting free high-quality classical music performances and music education experiences in the Chicago metropolitan area for people of all ages and degrees of musical awareness so they can experience how music enriches life.

Arts & Culture
3
Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

Creating innovative puppetry performances utilizing musical, literary, and puppetry traditions.

Arts & Culture
4
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
5
A Red Orchid Theatre

A Red Orchid Theatre is an ensemble of artists dedicated to the proliferation of live theatre in the modern world.

Arts & Culture
6
Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre

To use multiple artistic forms (primarily dance and music) and the combined talents of our diverse company to convey intense personal narratives. We are proudly and visibly multicultural, exploring the intersection of heritage, culture,…

Arts & Culture
7
Chicago Sinfonietta Inc

Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra dedicated to modeling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and both racial and cultural equity in the arts through the universal language of symphonic music. Our core values are built around…

Arts & Culture
8
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Opera theatre's mission is to shape a vibrant future for opera by connecting, inspiring, and entertaining our communities through the power and beauty of the art form; to foster the next generation by empowering a diverse group of artists,…

Arts & Culture
9
Natya Dance Theatre

Preserves and perpetuates bharata natyam, one of the great classical dance forms of india, in all its classical rigor, and moves the art form in innovative directions to foster cultural exchange through dance.

Arts & Culture
10
Chicago Theatre Group Inc

The chicago theatre group is committed to producing both classic and contemporary works giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. by dedicating itself to three guiding principles - quality, equity, and community - the…

Arts & Culture
11
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra

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

Arts & Culture
12
Cedille Chicago Nfp

Cedille Chicago, NFP is devoted to the activity of producing and marketing recordings of classical music by Chicago-area musicians and composers.

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the most unlike its peers is Real Cruzan Cats. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 45 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%9%10–20yr19%30%20–35yr14%35%35–55yr14%26%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%2%10–20yr19%39%20–35yr14%14%35–55yr14%45%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/25
the rest of the field
14%
7,119/51,668

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

25 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 36 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
25/25
Grantees still filing
21/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE JOFFREY BALLET — $810,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JOFFREY BALLETLyric Opera of Chicago — $750,000 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoBALLET THEATRE FOUNDATION INC — $495,000 · Arts & CultureBALLET THEATRE FOUNDATION INCAuditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc — $300,000 · Arts & CultureAuditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc+10 more — $139,500 · Arts & Culture+10 moreMETROPOLITAN OPERA — $300,000 · OtherMETROPOLITAN OPERAIndividual grant recipient — $195,000 · OtherIndividual grant recip…Individual grant recipient — $50,000 · OtherIndividual grant recip…RUTH PAGE CIVIC BALLET OF CHICAGO — $40,000 · OtherRUTH PAGE CIVIC BALLET…Individual grant recipient — $25,000 · OtherEnsemble Espanol — $25,000 · OtherLAKESIDE PRIDE MUSIC ENTERPRISE — $25,000 · Other+6 more — $48,000 · Other+6 morePAWS INC — $200,000 · AnimalsREAL CRUZAN CATS — $40,000 · AnimalsPeaceful Valley Donkey Rescue Inc — $10,000 · AnimalsFelines Inc — $10,000 · Animals+4 more — $20,000 · AnimalsENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWEST — $85,000 · Environment
Arts & Culture$2,494,500Other$708,000Animals$280,000Environment$85,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $810,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago — $750,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetBALLET THEATRE FOUNDATION INC — $495,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetAuditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc — $300,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetPAWS INC — $200,000 over 2y, 58% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWEST — $85,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetREAL CRUZAN CATS — $40,000 over 2y, 60% of budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra — $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEnsemble Espanol — $25,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetMUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFelines Inc — $10,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetJOYCE THEATER FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOPENLANDS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Dance Health Fund — $2,500 over 1y, 1.8% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

John D and Catherine …The Chicago Community…Ncrc Community Develo…Elizabeth F Cheney Fo…Arthur J Gallagher Fo…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…American Endowment Fo…The Bank of America C…Paypal Charitable Giv…Network for GoodDonor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
John D and Catherine T Macarthur FoundationIL19× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · Elizabeth F Cheney Foundation · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Nib Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 36 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines