Illinois · Nonprofit
BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE
BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE (Illinois) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $319,468 to it, the largest being GILMORE FOUNDATION ($198,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $206k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $319k
- Net assets
- $146k
What Big Picture Initiative does
Mission
The mission of Big Picture Initiative (the umbrella 501 (c) (3) organization) is to collaborate with other organizations, including government units, educational institutions, and park and conservation organizations, to provide opportunities for people of all ages to find expression through the arts;
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Art street festival, film festival, and art kits for eductaion
$191,700 spent$2,398 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $191,700.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $68k to $160k (+136%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2022: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $27k → $6k.
4 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
35% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 56% · 2020 63% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
25% of BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 38% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2022, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
100% of BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $102k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE is better cushioned than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE?
- BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE (Illinois) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $319,468 to it, the largest being GILMORE FOUNDATION ($198,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $319,468 in grants to BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE?
- GILMORE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $198,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIG PICTURE INITIATIVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Big Picture Initiative →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 8 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing