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Plinth

· Public charity

The Commercial Club Foundation

See schedule othe foundation was organized to fund activities of the civic committee & its affiliated orgs in their missions to make chicago a better place for everyone to live, work, & do business.

$15M
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$7.4M
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.

Community Improvement$31MPublic Benefit$15MEducation$4.6MPhilanthropy$3.9MYouth Development$75kArts & Culture$50kScience & Tech$25kFood & Nutrition$25k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $9k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
  • $250k+5 grants · $15M
$1,860,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$44M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO$7,433,903
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CRIME LABS$2,535,050
ROBERT R MCCORMICK FOUNDATION$2,000,000
CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST$1,860,000
CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE$1,243,109
P33$200,000
CIVIC COMMITTEE ACTION$8,695
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%THE CIVIC FEDERATION: $25k → 14%THE CIVIC FEDERATION: $25k → 14%THE CIVIC FEDERATION: $25k → 14%THE CIVIC FEDERATION: $25k → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $7.4M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $4.9M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $3.1M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $3.0M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $2.5M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $2.4M → 14%THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO: $2.3M → 14%The Commercial Club of chicago: $2.2M → 14%The Commercial Club of chicago: $1.7M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.6M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.5M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.5M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.5M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.4M → 14%Civic Consulting Alliance: $1.4M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.4M → 14%Civic Consulting Alliance: $1.4M → 14%CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE: $1.2M → 14%Illinois is Broke: $1.0M → 14%New Schools for Chicago: $643k → 14%P33: $400k → 14%P33: $300k → 14%P33: $300k → 14%P33: $300k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $250k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $224k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $197k → 14%Illinois is Broke: $188k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $182k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $169k → 14%New Schools for Chicago: $161k → 14%KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION: $157k → 14%ILLINOIS IS BROKE: $79k → 14%CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $25k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CRIME LABS: $2.5M → 14%Univ of Chicago Harrris School of Publ P: $60k → 14%P33: $200k → 14%P33: $200k → 14%STAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CTRINC: $75k → 14%ROBERT R MCCORMICK FOUNDATION: $2.0M → 14%CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST: $1.9M → 14%The Civic Federation: $25k → 14%CHICAGO SINFONIETTA: $25k → 14%The Civic Federation: $25k → 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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$50M · 9 repeat orgs$195k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
7

Total granted

$50M
$195k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
+25%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
EducationArts & CulturePublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • TC
    THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO
    9× · 2017–2025 · $29M · revenue +239% · 85% of their budget
  • CC
    CIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE
    9× · 2017–2025 · $13M · revenue +99% · 55% of their budget
  • University of Chicago
    2× · 2020–2025 · $2.6M · revenue +52%

Funded once

  • STAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC
    one grant, 2021 · $75k · revenue -7%
  • SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +25%
  • GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORYgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +34%

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
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
2
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

The chicagoland chamber of commerce combines the power of people, with our legacy of leadership and business advocacy, to drive a dynamic economy. we focus on delivering value for our members, making chicagoland a world-class place to live…

—
3
The Commercial Club Foundation

See schedule othe foundation was organized to fund activities of the civic committee & its affiliated orgs in their missions to make chicago a better place for everyone to live, work, & do business.

—
4
The Chicago Innovation Foundation
Philanthropy
5
Chicago Municipal Employee's Credit Union

To give members the ability to control their financial destiny by providing members with the means to satisfy their needs for financial services in a comfortable family-like environment. in doing so, the credit union strives to maintain…

—
6
Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement
7
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
8
Illinois Chamber of Commerce

The unifying leader of policies that support growth in illinois' dynamic and diverse economy. this is done through various means, one of which is aggressively advocate the interest of business. its vision is a vibrant and prosperous future…

—
9
The Executives' Club of Chicago

To be chicagos premier resources for connecting, developing, and growing best-in-class leaders to provide established and emerging leaders opportunities to develop and nurture meaningful relationships, participate in innovative…

—
10
Chicago's Environmental Fund
—
11
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
12
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids First Chicago for Education and the most unlike its peers is Smithsonian Institution. 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

18 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
12/18
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO — $29,451,224 · OtherTHE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGOCIVIC COMMITTEE ACTION — $1,346,833 · Other+1 more — $170,150 · OtherCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE — $13,035,799 · EducationCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCEUniversity of Chicago — $2,595,050 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoKIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION — $1,981,733 · EducationKIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATIONROBERT R MCCORMICK FOUNDATION — $2,000,000 · PhilanthropyThe Chicago Community Trust — $1,860,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $45,000 · PhilanthropyP33 — $1,700,000 · Community Improvement+1 more — $10,000 · Community ImprovementSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $75,000 · Youth DevelopmentSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $25,000 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC — $25,000 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER — $25,000 · Arts & CultureILLINOIS FISCAL POLICY COUNCIL — $50,000 · Public BenefitLEADERSHIP GREATER CHICAGO — $10,000 · Public BenefitGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $25,000 · Food & Nutrition
Other$30,968,207Education$17,612,582Philanthropy$3,905,000Community Improvement$1,710,000Youth Development$75,000Arts & Culture$75,000Public Benefit$60,000Food & Nutrition$25,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO — $29,451,224 over 9y, 85% of budgetCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE — $13,035,799 over 9y, 55% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $2,595,050 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION — $1,981,733 over 8y, 35% of budgetP33 — $1,700,000 over 6y, 8.7% of budgetCIVIC COMMITTEE ACTION — $1,346,833 over 9y, 100% of budgetTHE CIVIC FEDERATION — $170,150 over 8y, 1.6% of budgetSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $75,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetILLINOIS FISCAL POLICY COUNCIL — $50,000 over 5y, 71% of budgetUNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC — $45,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC — $25,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLEADERSHIP GREATER CHICAGO — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTaxpayers' Federation of Illinois — $10,000 over 1y, 1.8% 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.

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.

Arie and Ida Crown Me…The Chicago Community…Lloyd a Fry FoundationRobert R McCormick Fo…Polk Bros Foundation …Circle of Service Fou…John D and Catherine …United Way of Metropo…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…The Blackbaud Giving …Vanguard Charitable E…
Arie and Ida Crown MemorialIL17.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · The Chicago Community Trust · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Circle of Service Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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 Commercial Club 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 · 10%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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 18 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