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Oettinger Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Oettinger Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$11k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$6k
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, FY2020 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$28kEducation$2kYouth Development$1kPhilanthropy$1kHealth$250Food & Nutrition$200Human Services$100
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Lyric Opera of Chicago$5,982
Writers Theatre$5,000
American Opera Society of Chicago$55
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 (FY22–22, $100) 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%Shalva: $100 → 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.

33%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$10k · 3 repeat orgs$21k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +118% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.

3 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
11

Total granted

$10k
$16k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+118%
+17%

Still filing today

100%
64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’24
Arts & CultureYouth DevelopmentEducationRecreation & SportsFood & NutritionHuman 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
    3× · 2020–2024 · $7k · revenue +34%
  • MT
    Music Theatre Works Inc
    2× · 2020–2022 · $3k · revenue +220%
  • AO
    AMERICAN OPERA SOCIETY OF CHICAGO
    3× · 2021–2024 · $535 · revenue +118%

Funded once

  • GP
    GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +172%
  • CY
    Chicago Youth Centersgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $1k · revenue +57%
  • TC
    THE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS
    one grant, 2020 · $1k · revenue +21%
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 Opera Theater

Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.

Arts & Culture
3
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
4
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
5
Music and Dance Theater Chicago Inc
Arts & Culture
6
ChiArts Foundation

Support and promotion of arts education programs at chicago high school for the arts. the organization may also support other educational activities in furtherance of the arts.

Education
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
Chicago Cultural Alliance

The Chicago Cultural Alliances mission is to connect, promote, and support centers of cultural heritage for a more inclusive Chicago. We are an active consortium of 50 cultural heritage museums, centers, and historical societies that…

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
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
11
Chicago Shakespeare Theater

To create vivid, entertaining theatrical experiences that invigorate and engage people of all ages and identities by illuminating the complexity, ambiguity, and wonder of our world. shared humanity and unforgettable stories - now this is…

Arts & Culture
12
Third Coast International Audio Festival

To cultivate a growing international culture of listening.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Grant Park Orchestral Association; the most unlike its peers is Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park 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

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

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 16 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $10,000 · Arts & CultureGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATIONLyric Opera of Chicago: $7,332 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoWriters Theatre Inc: $5,000 · Arts & CultureWriters Theatre IncMusic Theatre Works Inc: $2,500 · Arts & CultureMusic Theatre Works Inc+1 more: $250 · Arts & CultureNoble Schools: $1,000 · OtherNoble SchoolsCHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN: $1,000 · OtherCHICAGO FOUNDAT…Metropolitan Opera: $1,000 · OtherMetropolitan Op…HOLY TRINITY HIGH SCHOOL: $600 · OtherHOLY TRINITY HI…AMERICAN OPERA SOCIETY OF CHICAGO: $535 · OtherAMERICAN OPERA …Friedman Place: $250 · OtherFriedman PlaceChicago Youth Centers: $1,000 · Youth DevelopmentTHE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS: $1,000 · EducationSKOKIE NORTHSHORE SCULPTURE PARK INC: $200 · Recreation & SportsGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $200 · Food & NutritionSHALVA INC: $100 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$25,082Other$4,385Youth Development$1,000Education$1,000Recreation & Sports$200Food & Nutrition$200Human Services$100

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 budgetGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $7,332 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWriters Theatre Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMusic Theatre Works Inc: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Youth Centers: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN OPERA SOCIETY OF CHICAGO: $535 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetChicago Humanities Festival: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHALVA INC: $100 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

The Chicago Community…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Chicago Community TrustIL12.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Oettinger Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Oettinger Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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 16 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Oettinger’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