· Private foundation
Robert & Isabelle Bass Fdn Inc
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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $15k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $195k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FIELD MUSEUM | $25,000 |
| LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO | $25,000 |
| GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL | $20,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $20,000 |
| CHICAGO OPERA THEATER | $20,000 |
| MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC | $12,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $12,500 |
| HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO | $10,000 |
| HARRIS THEATER FOR MUSIC AND DANCE | $10,000 |
| NOIS PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATION | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| JOFFREY BALLET | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| D-COMPOSED | $9,500 |
| CLASSICAL MUSIC CHICAGO | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +15% since the first grant, against -8% for those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- FMFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY7× · 2019–2025 · $175k · revenue +28%
- GPGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION7× · 2019–2025 · $110k · revenue +95%
- CSChicago Symphony Orchestra7× · 2019–2025 · $98k · revenue +75%
Funded once
- GIGilloury Instituteone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue -8%
- PLPLAYMAKERS LABORATORY THEATREone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue -34%
- VGVictory Gardens Theaterone grant, 2019 · $8k · revenue -85%
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.
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.
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…
To enrich the lives of our community through dance education and performance while developing Chicago's native talent pool in a welcoming environment that celebrates multiculturalism & ethnic diversity.
Lookingglass theatre company is a national leader in the creation and presentation of innovative, cutting-edge theatrical work. lookingglass interweaves movement, circus arts and narrative in original and captivating ways. guided by an…
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)
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.
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…
Writers Theatre (WT) is a literary organization that operates not-for-profit theatres in Glencoe, Illinois. The Writers Theatre mission is to create intimate connections through astonishing performances and innovative programs; activating…
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…
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.
How this is measured
21 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. 21 of the 27 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO OPERA THEATER ↗
- Who funds GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds Storycatchers ↗
- Who funds Healthy Schools Campaign ↗
- Who funds HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds GIRLS INC OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds READING BETWEEN THE LINES NFP ↗
- Who funds STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds Classical Music Chicago ↗
- Who funds THE JOFFREY BALLET ↗
- Who funds MUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds Gilloury Institute ↗
- Who funds NOIS PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATION NFP ↗
- Who funds PLAYMAKERS LABORATORY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds Victory Gardens Theater ↗
- Who funds HOLTER MUSEUM OF ART ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Richard and Mary L Gray Foundation · The Poetry Foundation · John R Halligan Charitable Fund · Illinois Humanities Council Inc · The Irving Harris Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Robert & Isabelle Bass Fdn Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert & Isabelle Bass Fdn Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
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