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Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

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.

$2.3M
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$7.4MEducation$2.5MHealth$100kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $50k–250k4 grants · $369k
  • $250k+3 grants · $2.0M
$200,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$317k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO$1,000,000
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO$500,000
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC CINEMA-CHICAGO$475,000
THE JOFFREY BALLET$200,000
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM$69,000
NEWBERRY LIBRARY$50,000
GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL$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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 80% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%POSSE FOUNDATION INC: $100k → 17%UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM: $69k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $2.0M → 10%CHICAGO OPERA THEATER: $100k → 14%POSSE FOUNDATION INC: $100k → 17%UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM: $69k → 14%ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%POSSE FOUNDATION INC: $100k → 17%UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM: $69k → 14%ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $50k → 14%NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $50k → 14%NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $50k → 14%NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $50k → 14%NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $50k → 14%CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ON NAVY PIER: $25k → 14%DEFINITION THEATRE: $25k → 14%CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC CINEMA-CHICAGO: $475k → 14%CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC CINEMA-CHICAGO: $450k → 14%PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF ILLINOIS: $100k → 14%CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC CINEMA-CHICAGO: $50k → 14%CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC CINEMA-CHICAGO: $50k → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $1.1M → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $1.0M → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $500k → 14%PATRICK G AND SHIRLEY W RYAN OPERA CENTER: $100k → 14%VIVERY COMMUNITY: $100k → 14%LUMINARTS CULTURAL FOUNDATION: $150k → 14%LUMINARTS CULTURAL FOUNDATION: $50k → 14%THE JOFFREY BALLET: $200k → 14%THE JOFFREY BALLET: $200k → 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.

76%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$7.6M · 9 repeat orgs$2.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +7% since the first grant, against -8% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
7

Total granted

$7.6M
$2.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+7%
-8%

Still filing today

100%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthOther
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
    4× · 2022–2025 · $3.1M · revenue +3%
  • TA
    THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
    4× · 2022–2025 · $2.0M · revenue +12%
  • CI
    Chicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-Chicago
    4× · 2022–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +164%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $2.0M · revenue -8%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $100k
  • CO
    CHICAGO OPERA THEATER
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · 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
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
3
Music and Dance Theater Chicago Inc
Arts & Culture
4
Music Institute of Chicago

The music institute of chicago ("music institute") leads people toward a lifelong engagement with music, by providing widely accessible resources for high quality music teaching, performing, and service activities.

Arts & Culture
5
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
6
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
7
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its core, the mission of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is to enrich, inspire and transform lives through music, community engagement and education - locally, nationally and…

Arts & Culture
8
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
9
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
10
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
11
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
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Grant Park Orchestral Association; the most unlike its peers is The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 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

13 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. 13 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
7/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Lyric Opera of Chicago: $3,100,000 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoChicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-Chicago: $1,025,000 · Arts & CultureChicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-ChicagoTHE JOFFREY BALLET: $400,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JOFFREY BALLETThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $207,000 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $225,000 · Arts & CultureTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $2,050,000 · EducationTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGOUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $2,000,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATIONTHE POSSE FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 · EducationTHE POSSE FOUNDATION INCTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $200,000 · EducationLUMINARTS CULTURAL FOUNDATION THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF CHICAGO: $200,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $100,000 · OtherThe Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Opera Center: $100,000 · OtherDEFINITION THEATRE: $25,000 · OtherCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ON NAVY PIER: $25,000 · OtherPlanned Parenthood of Illinois: $100,000 · Health
Arts & Culture$4,957,000Education$4,550,000Other$450,000Health$100,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $3,100,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $2,050,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $2,000,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetChicago International Film Festival Inc Cinema-Chicago: $1,025,000 over 4y, 11% of budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET: $400,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetTHE POSSE FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $207,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $200,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetLUMINARTS CULTURAL FOUNDATION THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF CHICAGO: $200,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $125,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetCHICAGO OPERA THEATER: $100,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetPlanned Parenthood of Illinois: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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 · 0–10%
    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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Robert and Penelope Steiner Family’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