· Private foundation
Tinberg Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k17 grants · $31k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $105k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $417k
- $250k+1 grant · $450k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $450,000 |
| WRITER'S THEATRE | $151,500 |
| COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | $60,000 |
| INGENUITY INCORPORATED CHICAGO | $55,000 |
| CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA | $50,000 |
| RODERICK AND SOLANGE MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER | $25,000 |
| ERIKA'S LIGHTHOUSE A BEACON OF HOPE FOR ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION | $25,000 |
| REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA | $15,000 |
| STEPPENWOLF THEATRE | $10,000 |
| CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC (DBA - GOODMAN THEATRE) | $10,000 |
| COURT THEATRE | $10,000 |
| HARPERS MAGAZINE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| BAKER DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| EAGLE VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
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 (FY20–23, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 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
Which US states its grants reach
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 +26% for those funded once.
36 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 12 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, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $65k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WTWriters Theatre Inc7× · 2019–2025 · $826k · revenue +50%
Northwestern University7× · 2019–2025 · $656k · revenue +34%
University of Chicago7× · 2019–2025 · $331k · revenue +25%
Funded once
- STSHAKESPEARE THEATREone grant, 2019 · $15k
- NFNORTHSHORE FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $5k
- HFHOLY FAMILY MINISTREISone grant, 2019 · $5k
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.
To create vivid, entertaining theatrical experiences that invigorate and engage people of all ages and identities by illuminating the complexity, ambiguity, and wonder of our world. shared humanity and unforgettable stories - now this is…
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 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.
The mission of the lincoln park conservancy is to preserve and enhance the inspiring beauty of chicago's largest and most visited park for current and future generations. we believe that beauty matters. that it has the transformative power…
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…
Chicago sun-times serves the public interest by strengthening the well-being of our local communities and our democracy through independent local journalism.
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…
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 purpose of the hyde park art center (the art center) is to stimulate and sustain the visual arts in chicago. it does so by challenging and supporting artists, connecting artists to a broader public, and creating a community of people…
We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance 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…
How this is measured
42 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. 42 of the 66 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 Writers Theatre Inc ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds INGENUITY INCORPORATED CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC ↗
- Who funds COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Erikas Lighthouse A Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression ↗
- Who funds STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds The People's Music School ↗
- Who funds BUILD INC ↗
- Who funds EAGLE VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE INC ↗
- Who funds WINNETKA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds NORTH SHORE ART LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds HARPER'S MAGAZINE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC BROADCASTING OF COLORADO INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds COUNSELING CENTER OF THE NORTH SHORE INC ↗
- Who funds BAKER DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR THE GREAT LAKES ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK VILLAGE INC ↗
- Who funds RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
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: Kemper Educational and Charitable Fund · The Chicago Community Trust · Ross Family Foundation · John D and Alexandra Nichols Family Foundation · Frank Family Foundation · Sheila Reynolds Berner Foundation · Charles H and Beverly E Shaw Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · The Winnetka Club · Center Street Foundation · Bundy Family Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Tinberg Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Tinberg Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Tinberg Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Tinberg Foundation 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.
Play a game based on Tinberg’s filings →