How much does The Orbit Fund give?

The Orbit Fund reported 8 grants totaling $12,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 10 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.

What does The Orbit Fund fund?

By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (75%), Environment (7%), Philanthropy (6%).

Who are The Orbit Fund's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Society for Contemporary Art C-O The Art Institute of Chicago ($15k), Hyde Park Art Center ($8k), Primary Information Inc ($5k).

Does The Orbit Fund fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Orbit Fund accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Orbit Fund?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Metzner Family Foundation, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, National Philanthropic Trust.

Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

The Orbit Fund

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$13k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 8
Grants FY2025: 5
Organizations funded FY2024: 20%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $1,500
Largest grant, FY2025: $2,500
Organizations funded a year: 5 to 10; FY2021 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 3
Total assets, FY2025: $292k
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations The Orbit Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 4% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $500 went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Arts & CultureOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	8	$13k	25%
FY2024	5	$12k	20%
FY2023	7	$13k	29%
FY2022	10	$13k	0%
FY2021	10	$13k	n/a

98% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$47kEnvironment$5kPhilanthropy$4kCrime & Legal$3kEducation$2kPublic Safety & Disaster$1kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Society for Contemporary Art C-O The Art Institute of Chicago	$15,000	5	2%
Hyde Park Art Center	$7,500	3	0%
Primary Information Inc	$4,500	3	1%
The Experimental Station	$3,000	2	0%
The Pruno Fund Inc	$2,500	1	1%
Elmhurst Art Museum	$1,000	2	0%
Skidmore College	$1,000	2	0%
Vassar College	$1,000	2	0%
Roots & Culture Contemporary Artcenter	$500	1	0%

Plus 6 recipients with no EIN on record ($27k), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Orbit Fund supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 9.

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.

Metzner Family FoundationIL13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Metzner Family Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare The Orbit Fund with peer funders

About The Orbit Fund

How much does The Orbit Fund give?: The Orbit Fund reported 8 grants totaling $12,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 10 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.
What does The Orbit Fund fund?: By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (75%), Environment (7%), Philanthropy (6%).
Who are The Orbit Fund's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Society for Contemporary Art C-O The Art Institute of Chicago ($15k), Hyde Park Art Center ($8k), Primary Information Inc ($5k).
Does The Orbit Fund fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Orbit Fund accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Orbit Fund?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Metzner Family Foundation, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, National Philanthropic Trust.
Where is The Orbit Fund based?: The Orbit Fund is based in IL.