Illinois · Nonprofit
CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (Illinois) receives grants from 447 organizations whose IRS filings report $73,495,184 to it, the largest being THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION ($13,527,500). 348 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $68M
- Funders on record
- 447
- Grants received
- $73M
- Net assets
- $294M
What Chicago Horticultural Society does
Mission
We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Horticultural programs - the garden comprises 385 acres, including 81 acres of lakes and waterways, a 15 acre illinois prairie, and 100 acres of native woodlands. There are 28 display gardens representing unique designs, such as the english walled garden, the japanese garden, and the fruit and vegetable island. In 2024, the plant collection of the garden totals 2.73m living plants. The total number of active accessions (accession records) is 29,543 with the taxa in the permanent collections numbering 14,200. A total of 235 families are represented. The plant collections department at the garden oversees the acquisition of plants and seeds from nurseries, arboreta, botanic gardens, plant breeding programs, and collecting expeditions to many foreign countries.
$19,311,756 spent$2,673,009 earned by the program33% of program spendingVisitor services: 1,300,000 people visited the garden in 2024, from throughout the chicago area, the midwest, the nation and the world. The garden features a wide variety of indoor and outdoor events, activities, programming and exhibitions. The garden also hosts dozens of flower shows and sales, and is the site of educational programming for visitors of all ages and weekend family classes.
$15,506,913 spent$1,504,455 earned by the program26% of program spendingPlant conservation - the garden is recognized as an important player in international plant conservation and a leader in ornamental plant development. Its plant breeding, evaluation, and introduction efforts are creating new and improved plants for midwest gardens, and its division of plant science and conservation is working on the most pressing environmental issues of our time, including invasiveness, loss of plant species biodiversity, and habitat conservation.
$13,759,836 spent$5,498,815 earned by the program23% of program spendingEducational programs - through the joseph regenstein, jr. School of the chicago botanic garden and a variety of educational and community outreach programs, the garden seeks to become the nation's preeminent teaching garden, with programming for students of all ages, including camp cbg (for ages 2-12), nature preschool, and science first, windy city harvest youth farm, and college first (for middle and high school students). College students and post-graduates participate in various intern programs, some in partnership with area universities. Finally, hundreds of classes, workshops, symposia, and eleven professional certificate programs are available through the joseph regenstein, jr. School. Each year approximately 150,000 are reached through these programs.
$9,170,768 spent$3,427,538 earned by the program15% of program spendingOther
$1,607,731 spent$122,831 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $59,357,004.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 2018 to 2019, from $249M to $290M (+16%).
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: 2017 19% · 2018 19% · 2019 10% · 2020 17% · 2021 19% · 2022 12% · 2023 15% · 2024 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
58% of CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Jean Franczyk
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 124 funders to 234 funders, grant income rose $2.4M → $14M.
24 of 447 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $13M from 8 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 447 funders by total. 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
CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
29% 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 CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 9% · 2018 31% · 2019 41% · 2020 20% · 2021 20% · 2022 24% · 2023 27% — 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
57% of CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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 FY2023, 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
86% of CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY is better cushioned than half of the 330 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 330 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $38.1M on record.
- Department of the Interior$21.9M
- Department of Agriculture$7.5M
- National Science Foundation$6.2M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.9M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$250k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$202k
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 CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Chicagoland Grows · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: 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 CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY?
- CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (Illinois) receives grants from 447 organizations whose IRS filings report $73,495,184 to it, the largest being THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION ($13,527,500). 348 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 447 organizations giving $73,495,184 in grants to CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 348 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY?
- THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $13,527,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 447 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