Illinois · Nonprofit
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Illinois) receives grants from 306 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,193,533 to it, the largest being ZELL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,107,000). 239 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Chicago Symphony Orchestra runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 34 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 34 arts & culture nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Bluhm Family Foundationshared funders
- American Symphony Orchestra League D/B/A League of American Orchestrasportfolio match
- The Canning Foundationshared funders
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.
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 10% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
58% of Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (55% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 117 funders to 155 funders, grant income rose $3.6M → $19M.
22 of 306 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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: $5.8M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money Chicago Symphony Orchestra raised.
From the IRS filings of Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 306 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 Symphony Orchestra has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 16% · 2018 27% · 2019 19% · 2020 21% · 2021 21% · 2022 22% · 2023 42% — 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 Symphony Orchestra'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
87% of Chicago Symphony Orchestra's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 306 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Bluhm Family Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 72 organizations that share your funders
- American Symphony Orchestra League D/B/A League of American Orchestrasportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Canning Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 72 organizations that share your funders
- Cme Group Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 79 organizations that share your funders
- Robert R McCormick Foundationshared funderslocalIL · backs 142 organizations that share your funders · funds 440 organizations near you
- Frank Family Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 54 organizations that share your funders
- Vivo Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 66 organizations that share your funders
- Walder Foundationshared fundersDE · backs 59 organizations that share your funders
- The Buchanan Family Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 42 organizations that share your funders
- Fifth Third Chicagoland Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 63 organizations that share your funders
- The Coleman Foundation Incshared fundersIL · backs 51 organizations that share your funders
- Pritzker Family Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 51 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding Chicago Symphony Orchestra receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $949k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$882k
- Department of Defense$67k
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 Symphony Orchestra
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra?
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Illinois) receives grants from 306 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,193,533 to it, the largest being ZELL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,107,000). 239 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Chicago Symphony Orchestra have?
- IRS filings report 306 organizations giving $98,193,533 in grants to Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 239 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Chicago Symphony Orchestra?
- ZELL FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $20,107,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Chicago Symphony Orchestra 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 306funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing