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Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable 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.

$247k
Granted FY2025still arriving
21
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$49k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.0MEducation$839kHealth$289kPhilanthropy$214kRecreation & Sports$158kPublic Benefit$147kEnvironment$56kCommunity Improvement$51kOther$0
02FY2025 · 21 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k11 grants · $27k
  • $10k–50k10 grants · $220k
$8,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$17k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION$48,500
GOODMAN THEATRE$36,750
NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION$25,500
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN$25,000
NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE$25,000
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$17,000
AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM$12,000
DEPAUL COLLEGE PREP$10,000
WBEZ$10,000
MILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION$10,000
ERIKSON INSTITUTE$8,000
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY$5,000
RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$5,000
SHEDD AQUARIUM$2,500
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY$2,000
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 (FY18–23, $61k) 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%CHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL BIENNIAL: $25k → 14%CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL: $25k → 14%CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL: $10k → 14%FAMILY FOCUS: $1k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
IN
OH
CA
MO
VA
DC
GA
FL
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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.6M · 53 repeat orgs$203k to everyone else

53 repeat relationships: 16 still active in FY2025, 37 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

53
77

Total granted

$2.6M
$174k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%
+31%

Still filing today

68%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $29k 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 & CultureEducationHealthYouth DevelopmentRecreation & SportsPhilanthropyOther
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

  • CS
    Chicago Symphony Orchestra
    7× · 2017–2025 · $276k · revenue +58%
  • RU
    Rush University Medical Center
    8× · 2017–2025 · $236k · revenue +51%
  • EI
    Erikson Institute
    9× · 2017–2025 · $236k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • TC
    THE COMMERCIAL CLUB FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $44k · revenue +350%
  • HC
    HEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $15k · revenue +33%
  • NM
    NWMH-DR MICHAEL M ABECASSIS TRANSPLANT INNOVATION ENDOW
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
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
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
2
Chicago Public Education Fund

The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.

Education
3
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
4
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
5
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
6
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
7
Lyric Opera of Chicago

We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance the…

Arts & Culture
8
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
9
The Chicago Bar Foundation

The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.

Education
10
Chicago Humanities Festival

To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.

Arts & Culture
11
Junior Achievement of Chicago

To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy

International
12
National Opinion Research Center

See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…

Social Science
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Illinois Humanities Council Inc; the most unlike its peers is Alphawood Foundation. 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

88 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. 88 of the 136 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)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
85/88
Grantees still filing
62/88
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Erikson Institute: $236,100 · EducationErikson InstituteCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $175,100 · EducationCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDA…CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $147,000 · EducationCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCENorth Central College: $126,150 · EducationNorth Central College+16 more: $52,818 · Education+16 moreCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $262,940 · OtherCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARYCHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION: $105,000 · OtherCHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATIONMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY: $51,550 · OtherMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPH…THE COMMERCIAL CLUB FOUNDATION: $44,000 · OtherMARWEN ARTS CAMPUS: $42,500 · OtherWBEZ: $40,000 · OtherNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: $38,000 · OtherTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: $55,500 · OtherTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND+69 more: $192,306 · Other+69 moreChicago Symphony Orchestra: $276,142 · Arts & CultureChicago Symphony Orchestr…CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC: $209,417 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INCGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $37,000 · Arts & CultureGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASS…STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY: $27,500 · Arts & CultureTHE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM: $21,500 · Arts & Culture+19 more: $68,798 · Arts & Culture+19 moreRush University Medical Center: $236,125 · HealthRush Univ…+5 more: $3,640 · HealthClayco Foundation: $160,000 · Philanthropy+2 more: $5,500 · PhilanthropyMILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION: $81,000 · Recreation & SportsNorthwestern University: $75,000 · Recreation & Sports+2 more: $750 · Recreation & SportsCHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL INC: $60,000 · Human Services+1 more: $1,000 · Human Services
Education$737,168Other$831,796Arts & Culture$640,357Health$239,765Philanthropy$165,500Recreation & Sports$156,750Human Services$61,000

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 budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra: $276,142 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetRush University Medical Center: $236,125 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetErikson Institute: $236,100 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetCHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC: $209,417 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $175,100 over 3y, 2.9% of budgetClayco Foundation: $160,000 over 6y, 2.0% of budgetCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $147,000 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetNorth Central College: $126,150 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetMILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION: $81,000 over 8y, 1.2% of budgetNorthwestern University: $75,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL INC: $60,000 over 3y, 3.7% of budgetTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: $55,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE COMMERCIAL CLUB FOUNDATION: $44,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetGRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION: $37,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetSTEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY: $27,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Michigan: $25,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetTHE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM: $21,500 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $17,300 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetHEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $13,287 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC: $11,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY: $10,720 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $10,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetGirl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $7,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $7,250 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation: $5,500 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetONE MILLION DEGREES: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMcDermott Center: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Youth Centers: $3,509 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetChiArts Foundation: $3,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $3,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS: $2,640 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF UNITED HATZALAH INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY: $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOpera Theatre of Saint Louis: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetASSOCIATION OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS -CHICAGO CHAPTER: $2,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTART EARLY: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEQUIP FOR EQUALITY: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJESSE WHITE FOUNDATION LTD: $1,750 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO: $1,500 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.

  • Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
  • Who funds Rush University Medical Center ↗
  • Who funds Erikson Institute ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Clayco Foundation ↗
  • Who funds CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds North Central College ↗
  • Who funds MILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL INC ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND ↗
  • Who funds THE COMMERCIAL CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY ↗
  • Who funds University of Michigan ↗
  • Who funds THE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds HEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
  • Who funds MUSIC AND DANCE THEATER CHICAGO INC ↗
  • Who funds DEPAUL UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ↗
  • Who funds THE CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
  • Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
  • Who funds Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation ↗

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.

John D and Catherine …Polk Bros Foundation …The Chicago Community…Circle of Service Fou…Arie and Ida Crown Me…Lloyd a Fry FoundationDr Scholl FoundationFrank Family Foundati…The Robert Thomas Bob…Robert R McCormick Fo…Patrick G and Shirley…AbbVie Foundation
John D and Catherine T Macarthur FoundationIL36.2× affinity18 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 · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Circle of Service Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · Frank Family Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation · AbbVie 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 Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable 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%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Artists Association of Nantucket Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
16report 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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Susan & Robert Wislow Charitable Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

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 136 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 Susan & Robert Wislow’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