How much did THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION grant in FY2024?

Crime & Legal$14MHuman Services$8.0MEducation$306kArts & Culture$250kHousing & Shelter$188kCivil Rights$133kInternational$71kPhilanthropy$39kHealth$5kOther$6.7M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

crfcfinancialadvocatedisabled personssecureeducatechild welfare

2020

securedisabled personspowereducateracial equityachieveadvancing

2021

financialgovernmentsecuredisabled personsunderstandingadvancingcivil liberties

2022

governmentdisabled personssecureachieveadvancinglivespower

2023

governmentsecuredisabled personsracial equityeducationaladvancingcivil liberties

2024

mikva challengefundersmiddlegovernmentequitable

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 32 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k11 grants · $36k
$10k–50k12 grants · $329k
$50k–250k1 grant · $79k
$250k+8 grants · $6.9M

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.5M

Total assets

Largest grants

CARPLS$1,913,372
CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION$1,126,355
LEGAL AID CHICAGO$965,494
LAW CENTER FOR BETTER HOUSING$820,452
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES$741,669
GREATER CHICAGO LEGAL CLINIC INC$478,678
CENTER FOR DISABILITY & ELDER LAW$436,315
LEGAL AID SOCIETY - METRO FAMILY SERVICES$397,776
CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION$79,013
UPTOWN PEOPLES LAW CENTER$46,000
CABRINI GREEN LEGAL AID$40,000
LIFE SPAN$35,000
ILLINOIS BAR FOUNDATION$34,000
CHICAGO LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS$30,000
IMPACT FOR EQUITY INC$25,000

02The need

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 (FY18–24, $8.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14% — the area typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — 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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$30M · 44 repeat orgs$56k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +88% since the first grant, against +23% for the ones you funded once.

44 repeat relationships — 25 still active in FY2024, 19 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$30M

$35k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+88%

+23%

Still filing today

86%

100%

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

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

C
CARPLS
7× · 2018–2024 · $6.6M · revenue +170% · 38% of their budget
CF
CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
7× · 2018–2024 · $3.9M · revenue +167% · 50% of their budget
LA
LEGAL AID CHICAGO
7× · 2018–2024 · $3.8M · revenue +96%

Funded once

IF
INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM
one grant, 2023 · $20k · revenue +23%
IC
INDO-AMERICAN CENTERgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $8k · revenue +167%
DU
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
one grant, 2018 · $8k · revenue +1%

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.

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

Chicago Committee On Minorities in Large

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

Civil Rights

Chicago United for Equity

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

Civil Rights

The Chicago Bar Foundation

The chicago bar foundation mobilizes chicago's legal community to improve access to justice.

Education

Inner City Law Center

Fighting for justice and housing by providing legal representation for the homeless and working poor.

Crime & Legal

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

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

Equal Justice Center

The Equal Justice Center is a non-profit law firm and employment justice organization which empowers low-income families, workers, and communities to achieve fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in our shared society…

Civil Rights

The Public Interest Law Center

The Public Interest Law Center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. We use litigation, community…

Crime & Legal

Lawyer Lend-a-Hand to Youth

Empower Chicago Youth to achieve excellence through individualized tutoring and mentorship.

Human Services

Lawyers' Assistance Program

The Organization aids and assists Illinois lawyers, judges, law students, and their families with alcohol abuse, drug dependency, or mental health problems.

—

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association

The objectives of the Association shall be to: uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Illinois; secure and protect the rights of those injured in their persons or civil rights; defend trial by jury and the…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Legal Aid Chicago and the most unlike its peers is Michael Reese Health Trust. 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 43 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% 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 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

0.0%0/54

the rest of the field

14%

4,320/31,456

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.

05the grantee network

52 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

48/52

Grantees still filing

41/52

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Crime & Legal$14,045,454Human Services$7,954,710Other$6,794,992Education$306,000Arts & Culture$250,000Housing & Shelter$187,500Civil Rights$132,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

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.

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.

The Sidley Austin FoundationIL63.2× affinity28 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

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

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 organisation 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.

2025

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely 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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

medium risk

~4 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

8 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 2.7× since.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 362997680 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

WatchFinancial stability— Roughly 4 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue grew over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 50% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to The Chicago Bar Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Chicago Bar Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

52 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Chicago Bar Foundation?

More from the funding graph

THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

52 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Chicago Bar Foundation?

More from the funding graph