· Private foundation
The Mardi Gras Fund
Its FY2024 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 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k16 grants · $78k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GIRLS GROUP | $10,000 |
| ALBANY PARK THEATRE PROJECT | $8,000 |
| UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY | $7,500 |
| THE CLEVELAND FOUNDRY | $7,500 |
| CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATER | $6,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $6,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| ART HOUSE | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO DANZTHEATRE ENSEMBLE | $5,000 |
| MARWEN | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO JAZZ PHILHARMONIC | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO YOUTH SYMPHANY ORCHESTRAS | $5,000 |
| CHAUTAUQUA ARTS ED | $3,000 |
| CHICAGO WEST COMMUNITY CENTER | $3,000 |
| FREE SPIRIT MEDIA | $3,000 |
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% 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 +93% since the first grant, against +47% for those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $13k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- UMUNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY8× · 2017–2024 · $34k · revenue +93%
GIRLS GROUP8× · 2017–2024 · $32k · revenue +121%- APAlbany Park Theater Project8× · 2017–2024 · $30k · revenue +25%
Funded once
- YOYMCA of Akron Make a Splashone grant, 2017 · $4k
- FCFlying Children's Art Centerone grant, 2017 · $4k
- RARiverside Arts Center Foundation Incone grant, 2018 · $3k · revenue +19%
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.
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.
Constellation is a performing arts presenter with an emphasis on forward- thinking practices, particularly in the areas of jazz, improvised, experimental, and contemporary classical music.
To enrich the lives of our community through dance education and performance while developing Chicago's native talent pool in a welcoming environment that celebrates multiculturalism & ethnic diversity.
Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra dedicated to modeling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and both racial and cultural equity in the arts through the universal language of symphonic music. Our core values are built around…
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…
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra's mission as a professional orchestra is to utilize the universal expression of music to create profound, inspiring, and personal connections between the people and communities of Chicagos Southland.
Create connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration.
The mission of Constellation Stage & Screen is to produce world-class theater and film that impacts the national performing arts industry through new work development. Constellation's productions, community events, and education programs…
To ignite the power of jazz music education and transform lives by fostering creative self-expression, community, teamwork, and diversity.
Ballet Chicago is a professional track school of ballet that creates exceptional dancers. It makes classical ballet training accessible to all. Its founders Daniel Duell and Patricia Blair carry on George Balanchines legacy by providing…
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 29 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 UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds GIRLS GROUP ↗
- Who funds Jazzistry ↗
- Who funds Albany Park Theater Project ↗
- Who funds CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds Chicago Jazz Philharmonic ↗
- Who funds Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Inc ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS ↗
- Who funds PROJECT DANZTHEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds ART HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP ↗
- Who funds Hands On Sports Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds CLEVELAND FOUNDRY ↗
- Who funds PLAYMAKERS LABORATORY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds Riverside Arts Center Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds Chicago West Community Music Center ↗
- Who funds WORKING IN CONCERT ↗
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: Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Harry a and Margaret D Towsley Foundation · Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · DTE Energy Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · AbbVie Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Mardi Gras Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Mardi Gras Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Mardi Gras Fund?
Find your warmest path to The Mardi Gras Fund through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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