Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersAlso receives grants — funding profile →
Plinth

· Public charity

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.

$9.8M
Granted FY2025still arriving
52
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$2.2M
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 FY2017–2025.

Crime & Legal$35MHousing & Shelter$3.5MCivil Rights$1.6MArts & Culture$158kHealth$148kHuman Services$133kEducation$88kInternational$86kOther$0
02FY2025 · 52 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 52 grants below total $9,526,902 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $9,777,502 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $250,600 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k17 grants · $67k
  • $10k–50k20 grants · $503k
  • $50k–250k7 grants · $592k
  • $250k+8 grants · $8.4M
$22,500
Median grant
3
States reached
$10M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CARPLS$2,209,850
LEGAL AID CHICAGO$1,459,066
CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION$1,306,184
LAW CENTER FOR BETTER HOUSING$1,071,005
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES$769,909
GREATER CHICAGO LEGAL CLINIC INC$562,991
CENTER FOR DISABILITY & ELDER LAW$561,941
LEGAL AID SOCIETY - METRO FAMILY SERVICES$424,318
UPTOWN PEOPLES LAW CENTER$149,412
THE RESURRECTION PROJECT$113,000
CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION$82,226
CHICAGO LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS$80,000
NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER$57,500
EQUIP FOR EQUALITY$55,000
LEGAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH JUSTICE$55,000
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:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $10.8M) 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 your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%INDO-AMERICAN CENTER: $8k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY - METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $424k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY - METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $398k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $110k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $60k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $58k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $47k → 14%CARPLS: $2.2M → 14%CARPLS: $1.9M → 14%CARPLS: $1.5M → 14%CARPLS: $1.4M → 14%CARPLS: $688k → 14%CARPLS: $381k → 14%CARPLS: $376k → 14%CARPLS: $372k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $223k → 14%CARPLS: $204k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $130k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $93k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $45k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $35k → 14%LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF METRO FAMILY SERVICES: $35k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $60k → 14%NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: $60k → 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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$40M · 52 repeat orgs$247k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +61% since the first grant, against +41% for the ones you funded once.

52 repeat relationships — 42 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

52
4

Total granted

$40M
$45k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+61%
+41%

Still filing today

90%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $202k 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
Crime & LegalEducationHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterArts & CultureCivil RightsOther

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

  • CA
    COORDINATED ADVICE & REFERRAL PROGRAM FOR LEGAL SERVICES
    9× · 2017–2025 · $9.0M · revenue +135% · 38% of their budget
  • LA
    LEGAL AID CHICAGO
    9× · 2017–2025 · $5.4M · revenue +96%
  • CF
    CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
    9× · 2017–2025 · $5.3M · revenue +182% · 54% of their budget

Funded once

  • Northwestern Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +41%
  • TB
    THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
    one grant, 2017 · $15k
  • IC
    Indo-American Centergraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $8k · revenue +195%

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
Chicago Committee On Minorities in Large Law Firms

The chicago committee seeks racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession by collaborating with its law firm and corporate membership to: drive sustainable institutional change at law firms and corporate legal departments; provide…

Civil Rights
2
Lakeshore Legal Aid

Standing with our neighbors, Lakeshore Legal Aid fights poverty and injustice through advocacy and by providing meaningful and dignified access to the legal system.

Crime & Legal
3
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
4
Latino Union of Chicago

Latino Union works to defend the rights and dignity of contingent workers, including the right to immigrate, work, live free of oppression and violence, and provide for oneself and one's family.

Human Services
5
Illinois Coalition for Legal Reform

Advocate for tort reform in Illinois by communicating with public officials and staff to influence legislation and administrative action designed to create a more equitable and balanced judicial system in Illinois.

Community Improvement
6
Inner City Law Center

In 2024, Inner City Law Center, ICLC, served over 3,400 people, helping vulnerable Angelenos to remain in their homes and recover nearly $20.5 million in financial benefits.

Crime & Legal
7
Chicago United for Equity

Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.

Civil Rights
8
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area

As one of the most enduring civil rights institutions on the West Coast, we work to dismantle systems of oppression and racism, and build an equitable and just society.

—
9
Chicago Advocate Legal Nfp

Legal services and legal education

Human Services
10
Live Free Chicago

Live Free Illinois is a statewide organization partnering with over 120 congregations and directly impacted individuals to build safer more equitable communities across Illinois. Operating at the intersection of criminal justice reform and…

—
11
Prairie State Legal Services Inc

To provide or coordinate the delivery of high quality free civil legal services to low-income individuals, families and groups

Crime & Legal
12
Chicago Refugee Coalition

The Chicago Refugee Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated ot the alleviation of human suffering through innovative partnerships, advocacy and community empowerment.

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Legal Aid Chicago and the most unlike its peers is World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals. 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 41 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%5%<5yr14%3%5–10yr18%11%10–20yr17%19%20–35yr15%42%35–55yr16%19%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr18%1%10–20yr17%25%20–35yr15%67%35–55yr16%7%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% 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 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/66
the rest of the field
16%
5,000/31,444

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

62 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. 62 of the 66 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
27
Early backer (in before they grew)
59/62
Grantees still filing
46/62
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

LEGAL AID CHICAGO — $5,386,052 · Crime & LegalLEGAL AID CHICAGOCENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION — $5,330,181 · Crime & LegalCENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTIONLaw Center for Better Housing — $3,190,992 · Crime & LegalLaw Center for Better HousingGreater Chicago Legal Clinic — $2,935,479 · Crime & LegalGreater Chicago Legal Clinic+14 more — $2,583,672 · Crime & Legal+14 moreCOORDINATED ADVICE & REFERRAL PROGRAM FOR LEGAL SERVICES — $9,007,900 · Human ServicesCOORDINATED ADVICE & REFERRAL …Metropolitan Family Services — $1,383,170 · Human ServicesMetropolitan Family ServicesHEARTLAND HUMAN CARE SERVICES INC — $394,000 · Human Services+1 more — $7,500 · Human ServicesCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION — $4,288,496 · OtherCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL S…Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc — $1,912,627 · OtherCenter for Disability & E…The Chicago Bar Association — $591,981 · OtherThe Chicago Bar Associati…Legal Council for Health Justice — $451,500 · OtherEQUIP FOR EQUALITY — $434,000 · OtherUptown People's Law Center — $372,912 · Other+23 more — $1,050,230 · Other+23 moreIllinois Bar Foundation — $306,000 · EducationDEPAUL UNIVERSITY — $32,500 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF DENVER — $30,000 · EducationLADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) — $30,000 · Education+5 more — $21,000 · EducationCHICAGO COALITION TO END HOMELESSNESS — $217,500 · Housing & ShelterThe Resurrection Project — $113,000 · Housing & ShelterLatinos Progresando — $157,500 · Arts & CultureLAWYERS FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS — $132,500 · Arts & CultureChicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation — $152,500 · Civil RightsILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS — $17,500 · Civil Rights
Crime & Legal$19,426,376Human Services$10,792,570Other$9,101,746Education$419,500Housing & Shelter$330,500Arts & Culture$290,000Civil Rights$170,000

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 budgetCOORDINATED ADVICE & REFERRAL PROGRAM FOR LEGAL SERVICES — $9,007,900 over 9y, 38% of budgetLEGAL AID CHICAGO — $5,386,052 over 9y, 4.2% of budgetCENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION — $5,330,181 over 9y, 54% of budgetCHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION — $4,288,496 over 9y, 20% of budgetLaw Center for Better Housing — $3,190,992 over 8y, 15% of budgetGreater Chicago Legal Clinic — $2,935,479 over 9y, 23% of budgetCenter for Disability & Elder Law Inc — $1,912,627 over 9y, 26% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services — $1,383,170 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetThe Chicago Bar Association — $591,981 over 9y, 1.7% of budgetChicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc — $558,500 over 9y, 4.0% of budgetLegal Council for Health Justice — $451,500 over 7y, 3.1% of budgetEQUIP FOR EQUALITY — $434,000 over 8y, 1.2% of budgetHEARTLAND HUMAN CARE SERVICES INC — $394,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetCABRINI GREEN LEGAL AID — $392,500 over 8y, 1.8% of budgetSHRIVER CENTER ON POVERTY LAW — $373,672 over 7y, 1.5% of budgetUptown People's Law Center — $372,912 over 9y, 6.5% of budgetIllinois Bar Foundation — $306,000 over 9y, 2.5% of budgetILLINOIS LEGAL AID ONLINE — $304,500 over 8y, 5.0% of budgetASCEND JUSTICE — $299,500 over 7y, 2.5% of budgetLIFE-SPAN — $284,000 over 8y, 1.3% of budgetCHICAGO COALITION TO END HOMELESSNESS — $217,500 over 7y, 1.1% of budgetJAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY — $180,000 over 7y, 2.2% of budgetLatinos Progresando — $157,500 over 7y, 1.3% of budgetChicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation — $152,500 over 8y, 2.1% of budgetAccess Living of Metropolitan Chicago — $147,500 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetLAWNDALE CHRISTIAN LEGAL CENTER — $145,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetLAWYERS FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS — $132,500 over 8y, 3.9% of budgetTHE ROGER BALDWIN FOUNDATION OF ACLU INC — $97,500 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetPublic Interest Law Initiative — $95,500 over 4y, 3.1% of budgetCENTRO ROMERO — $95,000 over 8y, 0.5% of budgetWORLD RELIEF CORP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS — $86,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetIMPACT FOR EQUITY — $75,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetNIJC NFP — $57,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC — $57,500 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetFOREFRONT — $52,730 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetFirst Defense Legal Aid — $50,000 over 4y, 2.0% of budgetThe Family Defense Center — $35,000 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY — $32,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS — $30,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DENVER — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetILLINOIS EQUAL JUSTICE FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 6y, 6.8% of budgetLADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) — $30,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetNorthwestern University — $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS — $17,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetConstitutional Rights Foundation Chicago — $15,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetMICHAEL REESE HEALTH TRUST — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCBA Media and Civic Education Inc — $15,000 over 3y, 17% of budgetPRO BONO NETWORK — $7,500 over 2y, 0.7% 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.

  • Who funds COORDINATED ADVICE & REFERRAL PROGRAM FOR LEGAL SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds LEGAL AID CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Law Center for Better Housing ↗
  • Who funds Greater Chicago Legal Clinic ↗
  • Who funds Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc ↗
  • Who funds Metropolitan Family Services ↗
  • Who funds The Chicago Bar Association ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc ↗
  • Who funds Legal Council for Health Justice ↗
  • Who funds EQUIP FOR EQUALITY ↗
  • Who funds HEARTLAND HUMAN CARE SERVICES INC ↗
  • Who funds CABRINI GREEN LEGAL AID ↗
  • Who funds SHRIVER CENTER ON POVERTY LAW ↗
  • Who funds Uptown People's Law Center ↗
  • Who funds Illinois Bar Foundation ↗
  • Who funds ILLINOIS LEGAL AID ONLINE ↗
  • Who funds ASCEND JUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds LIFE-SPAN ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO COALITION TO END HOMELESSNESS ↗
  • Who funds JAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY ↗
  • Who funds Latinos Progresando ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation ↗
  • Who funds Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago ↗
  • Who funds LAWNDALE CHRISTIAN LEGAL CENTER ↗
  • Who funds LAWYERS FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds The Resurrection Project ↗
  • Who funds THE ROGER BALDWIN FOUNDATION OF ACLU INC ↗
  • Who funds Public Interest Law Initiative ↗
  • Who funds CENTRO ROMERO ↗
  • Who funds WORLD RELIEF CORP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS ↗
  • Who funds IMPACT FOR EQUITY ↗
  • Who funds NIJC NFP ↗
  • Who funds NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC ↗
  • Who funds FOREFRONT ↗
  • Who funds First Defense Legal Aid ↗
  • Who funds The Family Defense Center ↗
  • Who funds DEPAUL UNIVERSITY ↗

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.

Illinois Equal Justic…Polk Bros Foundation …Lawyers Trust Fund of…The Sidley Austin Fou…United Way of Metropo…The Chicago Community…Illinois Bar Foundati…Public Interest Law I…Circle of Service Fou…John D and Catherine …Chicago Foundation fo…Equal Justice Works
Illinois Equal Justice FoundationIL64.2× affinity28 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Illinois Equal Justice Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois · The Sidley Austin Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Illinois Bar Foundation · Public Interest Law Initiative · Circle of Service Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Chicago Foundation for Women · Equal Justice Works

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 The Chicago Bar 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 · 00%4%15%34%60%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 67%
  • World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals — 67% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
27report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
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 66 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. 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