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Illinois · Nonprofit

CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC

CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,367,687 to it, the largest being The Wallace Foundation ($2,358,200). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.7M
Funders on record
59
Grants received
$8.4M
Net assets
$1.9M
34/59 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 73%
01What it does

What Chicago Sinfonietta Inc does

Mission

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 being bold and daring in all aspects of our work, providing a source of connectivity through music, and ensuring and inspiring a continued investment in diversity and inclusion in classical music.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Concerts to offer minorities an opportunity to develop their talents and become role models for future artists and to make symphonic music accessible to those who do not normally attend symphony concerts.

    $2,156,480 spent$156,438 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,156,480.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.7M) Expenses 100 ($1.8M) Net assets 100 ($1.5M)2018 Revenue 130 ($2.2M) Expenses 104 ($1.9M) Net assets 123 ($1.8M)2019 Revenue 113 ($1.9M) Expenses 105 ($1.9M) Net assets 124 ($1.9M)2020 Revenue 109 ($1.9M) Expenses 113 ($2.1M) Net assets 110 ($1.7M)2021 Revenue 74 ($1.3M) Expenses 70 ($1.3M) Net assets 142 ($2.1M)2022 Revenue 204 ($3.5M) Expenses 117 ($2.2M) Net assets 232 ($3.5M)2023 Revenue 158 ($2.7M) Expenses 164 ($3.0M) Net assets 219 ($3.3M)2024 Revenue 164 ($2.8M) Expenses 206 ($3.8M) Net assets 169 ($2.5M)2025 Revenue 157 ($2.7M) Expenses 185 ($3.4M) Net assets 127 ($1.9M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (157)Expenses (185)Net assets (127)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $2.5M to $3.7M (+46%).

$1.6M
$2.1M
$1.9M
$2.1M
$2.5M
$3.7M
$3.6M
$2.7M
$2.0M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 4% · 2020 4% · 2021 5% · 2022 9% · 2023 9% · 2024 6% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

88% of CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,395 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$121k
’17
$333k
’18
$13k
’19
−$200k
’20
−$20k
’21
$1.3M
’22
−$286k
’23
−$972k
’24
−$699k
’25
0.1
months of
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

Blake Anthony Johnson

President & Chief Executive Officer

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed282723263129292625
Joined·+2+0+14+5+1+2+3+2
No longer listed·341103263
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $224k → $1.8M.

13 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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 SINFONIETTA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

28%
largest funder
51%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 20% · 2019 47% · 2020 14% · 2021 16% · 2022 34% · 2023 38% — 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 SINFONIETTA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 11 states in all.

NH
WA
MN
IL
NY
CA
NE
DE
AZ
NC
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 25 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−26% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.1mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $265k on record.

Federal$265k
grants $265kcontracts $0
18
19
21
22
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$265k

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 SINFONIETTA INC

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

63% of spending goes to programs.

Program 63%Management 25%Fundraising 12%

Governance

23
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

97%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC: 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.

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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 SINFONIETTA INC?
CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,367,687 to it, the largest being The Wallace Foundation ($2,358,200). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC have?
IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $8,367,687 in grants to CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC?
The Wallace Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,358,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC 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 Chicago Sinfonietta →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 59 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