· Private foundation
The Lucille & Joseph Block 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
- Under $10k19 grants · $45k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO | $10,000 |
| AIDS FOUNDATION OF CHICAGO | $5,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - THE BLOCK MUSEUM LEADERSHIP CIRCLE | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $4,500 |
| RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION | $3,500 |
| ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY | $3,000 |
| THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $3,000 |
| NORTH SHORE SENIOR CENTER | $3,000 |
| THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY | $2,500 |
| FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY | $2,500 |
| LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO | $2,500 |
| AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE | $2,000 |
| CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (DBA - CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN) | $2,000 |
| CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC (WBEZ) | $1,000 |
| MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $33k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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.
26 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 61% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- JUJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO9× · 2017–2025 · $90k · revenue +13%
- NSNORTH SHORE SENIOR CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $26k · revenue +38%
- TATHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO6× · 2020–2025 · $18k · revenue +32%
Funded once
- WWYCCone grant, 2017 · $500
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.
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 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.
We are chicago's jesuit, catholic university - a diverse community seeking god in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.
The mission of the university of chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.
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 Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)
To inspire conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature.
The Chicago School educates the next generation of change-makers in innovative theory and culturally competent practice to strengthen the integrated health of individuals, organizations, and communities.
Northwestern is committed to excellent teaching, innovative research and the personal and intellectual growth of its students in a diverse academic community.
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 35 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 JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds Roosevelt University ↗
- Who funds NORTH SHORE SENIOR CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH COUNCIL FOR YOUTH SERVICES ↗
- Who funds Chicago Commons Association ↗
- Who funds AIDS Foundation of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds Lyric Opera of Chicago ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lucille & Joseph Block Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lucille & Joseph Block Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Lucille & Joseph Block’s filings →