· Private foundation
The Henry and Gilda Buchbinder Family 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k6 grants · $75k
- $250k+1 grant · $5.2M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $5,226,783 |
| OSTEOGENISIS FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| NORTHWESTEN UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $10,000 |
| WTTW | $10,000 |
| GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL | $10,000 |
| MILLENEUM PARK FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +33% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
25 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TATHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO3× · 2023–2025 · $5.5M · revenue +29%
- LOLyric Opera of Chicago5× · 2017–2021 · $820k · revenue +33%
- MOMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART4× · 2017–2021 · $79k · revenue +0%
Funded once
- NMNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $60k
- AIART INSTITUTE SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $15k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $14k
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.
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.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
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.
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.
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…
The chicago theatre group is committed to producing both classic and contemporary works giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. by dedicating itself to three guiding principles - quality, equity, and community - the…
The chicago high school for the arts (chiarts) develops the next generation of diverse, artistically promising scholar-artists through intensive pre-professional training in the arts, combined with a comprehensive college preparatory…
The arts club of chicago was formed as a means to encourage, foster, and develop higher standards of arts craftsmanship, and to maintain the city of chicago facility for the housing of galleries and exhibitions open to the public and free…
The minnesota orchestra mission is to enrich, inspire and serve our community as an enduring symphony orchestra internationally recognized for its artistic excellence.
Presenting free high-quality classical music performances and music education experiences in the Chicago metropolitan area for people of all ages and degrees of musical awareness so they can experience how music enriches life.
The driehaus museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. its permanent collection and temporary…
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 39 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
- Who funds GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds MILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS AREA ARTS COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds Chicago Humanities Festival ↗
- Who funds NEAR NORTH MONTESSORI SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds PAWS CHICAGO ↗
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Henry and Gilda Buchbinder Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Henry and Gilda Buchbinder Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Shriners Hospitals for Children: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
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