How much does The Chicago Bar Foundation give?

The Chicago Bar Foundation reported 52 itemized grants totaling $9,526,902, out of $9,777,502 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 30 and 40 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Chicago Bar Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (85%), Housing & Shelter (9%), Civil Rights (4%).

Who are The Chicago Bar Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ($9.0M), Legal Aid Chicago ($5.4M), Center for Conflict Resolution ($5.3M).

Does The Chicago Bar Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 22% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Chicago Bar Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Polk Bros Foundation Inc, Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.

Where is The Chicago Bar Foundation based?

The Chicago Bar Foundation is based in IL.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

Illinois · 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 FY2025(still arriving): 52
Itemized grants FY2025: 32
Organizations funded FY2024: 22%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $9.5M; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $22,500
Largest grant, FY2025: $2,209,850
Organizations funded a year: 30 to 40; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 3
Total assets, FY2025: $10M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 22% of the organizations The Chicago Bar Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $21k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Crime & LegalEducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureCivil RightsHousing & ShelterOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	52	$9.5M	19%
FY2024	32	$7.3M	22%
FY2023	34	$7.3M	9%
FY2022	30	$5.8M	0%
FY2021	37	$3.2M	0%
FY2020	38	$1.8M	8%
FY2019	39	$1.8M	3%
FY2018	40	$2.4M	60%

100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

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

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$9,007,900	9	38%
Legal Aid Chicago	$5,386,052	9	4%
Center for Conflict Resolution	$5,330,181	9	54%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$4,288,496	9	20%
Law Center for Better Housing	$3,190,992	8	15%
Greater Chicago Legal Clinic	$2,935,479	9	23%
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc	$1,912,627	9	26%
Metropolitan Family Services	$1,383,170	8	0%
The Chicago Bar Association	$591,981	9	2%
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc	$558,500	9	4%

Show all 66 grantees

All grantees of The Chicago Bar Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$9,007,900	9	38%
Legal Aid Chicago	$5,386,052	9	4%
Center for Conflict Resolution	$5,330,181	9	54%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$4,288,496	9	20%
Law Center for Better Housing	$3,190,992	8	15%
Greater Chicago Legal Clinic	$2,935,479	9	23%
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc	$1,912,627	9	26%
Metropolitan Family Services	$1,383,170	8	0%
The Chicago Bar Association	$591,981	9	2%
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc	$558,500	9	4%
Legal Council for Health Justice	$451,500	7	3%
Equip for Equality	$434,000	8	1%
Heartland Human Care Services Inc	$394,000	6	0%
Cabrini Green Legal Aid	$392,500	8	2%
Shriver Center on Poverty Law	$373,672	7	2%
Uptown People's Law Center	$372,912	9	6%
Illinois Bar Foundation	$306,000	9	3%
Illinois Legal Aid Online	$304,500	8	5%
Ascend Justice	$299,500	7	3%
Life-Span	$284,000	8	1%
Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness	$217,500	7	1%
James B Moran Center for Youth Advocacy	$180,000	7	2%
Latinos Progresando	$157,500	7	1%
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation	$152,500	8	2%
Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago	$147,500	7	0%
Lawndale Christian Legal Center	$145,000	8	1%
Lawyers for the Creative Arts	$132,500	8	4%
The Resurrection Project	$113,000	1	n/a
The Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU Inc	$97,500	6	0%
Public Interest Law Initiative	$95,500	4	3%
Centro Romero	$95,000	8	1%
World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals	$86,000	8	0%
Impact for Equity	$75,000	3	1%
Nijc Nfp	$57,500	1	0%
North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic	$57,500	3	0%
Forefront	$52,730	5	0%
First Defense Legal Aid	$50,000	4	2%
The Family Defense Center	$35,000	2	3%
Chicago Community Foundation	$35,000	7	n/a
Depaul University	$32,500	2	0%
Center for Economic Progress	$30,000	2	2%
Ladder Up (F/K/A City-Wide Tax Assistance Program)	$30,000	2	1%
United States Catholic Conference	$30,000	4	n/a
University of Denver	$30,000	2	0%
Illinois Equal Justice Foundation	$30,000	6	7%
Northwestern University	$20,000	1	0%
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights	$17,500	3	0%
CBA Media and Civic Education Inc	$15,000	3	17%
Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago	$15,000	3	1%
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	$15,000	1	n/a
Michael Reese Health Trust	$15,000	2	0%
Pro Bono Network	$7,500	2	1%
Indo-American Center	$7,500	1	1%
American Bar Association	$6,000	2	0%
Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project	$6,000	1	n/a
Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation	$6,000	2	0%
Raise the Floor Alliance	$5,000	1	0%
Legal Action Chicago LLC	$5,000	1	n/a
Allies for Community Business Inc	$5,000	1	0%
Just the Beginning - a Pipeline Organization	$5,000	2	0%
Legal Prep Charter Academies	$5,000	2	0%
Credit Abuse Resistance Education	$2,500	1	n/a
Chicago Bankruptcy Help Desk Foundation Nfp	$2,500	1	n/a
University of Chicago	$2,500	1	0%
Metropolitan Tenants Organization	$2,500	1	0%
Loyola University of Chicago	$2,500	1	0%

The Chicago Bar Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 58 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 58.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

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

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.

Compare The Chicago Bar Foundation with peer funders

About The Chicago Bar Foundation

How much does The Chicago Bar Foundation give?: The Chicago Bar Foundation reported 52 itemized grants totaling $9,526,902, out of $9,777,502 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 30 and 40 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Chicago Bar Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (85%), Housing & Shelter (9%), Civil Rights (4%).
Who are The Chicago Bar Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ($9.0M), Legal Aid Chicago ($5.4M), Center for Conflict Resolution ($5.3M).
Does The Chicago Bar Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 22% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Chicago Bar Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Polk Bros Foundation Inc, Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.
Where is The Chicago Bar Foundation based?: The Chicago Bar Foundation is based in IL.