Illinois · Nonprofit
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Illinois) receives grants from 310 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,612,244 to it, the largest being ZELL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,107,000). 240 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $126M
- Funders on record
- 310
- Grants received
- $99M
- Net assets
- $492M
What Chicago Symphony Orchestra does
Mission
With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its core, the mission of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is to enrich, inspire and transform lives through music, community engagement and education - locally, nationally and internationally.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Concerts - During its 134th season, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra inspired audiences through more than 130 performances, including 32 weeks of subscription concerts. The 2024/25 Season was highlighted by landmark performances with Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Makela and Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti. Makela, whose tenure as the CSO's 11th Music Director begins in the 2027/28 Season, returned for a two-week spring residency that featured Mahler's Third Symphony and a program with Dvorak's Seventh Symphony and Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, featuring 2024/25 CSO Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov. Muti conducted four distinct programs in Chicago, including a program featuring the world premiere of the CSO-commissioned Megalopolis Suite by former Mead Composer-in-Residence Osvaldo Golijov, and capped the season with four capacity performances of Verdi's Requiem Mass. This followed a critically acclaimed U.S. tour in January 2025 led by Muti, which included performances in Florida, at New York's Carnegie Hall and the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Other artistic milestones included a 2025 European…
$53,777,951 spent$24,439,058 earned by the program79% of program spendingSymphony Center Presents Concerts - Symphony Center Presents (SCP) programs throughout the 2024/25 Season welcomed a wide array of world-class artists and ensembles. The SCP Chamber Music series featured the return of viol player Jordi Savall with his early music ensembles; violinist Julia Fischer with pianist Jan Lisiecki, and a trio comprising violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and cellist Pablo Ferrandez. The SCP Piano series brought legendary artists like Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Emanuel Ax, Evgeny Kissin, and Vikingur Olafsson back to Orchestra Hall, alongside notable debuts by Alexandre Kantorow and Mao Fujita. The SCP Jazz series included performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Cecile McLorin Salvant, the Bill Charlap Trio, Hiromi, the Brandee Younger Trio, Eliane Elias, and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra in a tribute to Oscar Peterson. Other highlights included Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lila Downs returning for a Dia de los Muertos program, as well as performances by the Sphinx Virtuosi, Kodo, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and Pink Martini.
$5,208,484 spent$4,882,128 earned by the program8% of program spendingEducation Concerts and Activities - Programs of the Negaunee Music Institute (NMI) engaged many communities, with 275 Chicago-area schools participating in programs that reached 25,000 students, teachers, and families. Two-thirds of student attendance came from Chicago Public Schools, who received free bus transportation. The Institute collaborated with 90 schools and community partners to deliver education and community engagement programs throughout the year. Training programs and performance opportunities for young musicians included the Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition, Chicago Youth in Music Festival, Percussion Scholarship Program, Young Composers Initiative and partnerships with local schools and the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. The NMI continued to co-present Notes for Peace, a songwriting project that empowers parents who have lost children to gun violence to create original songs of tribute.
$2,728,784 spent$473,448 earned by the program4% of program spendingCivic Orchestra of Chicago - The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's prestigious training program for young professional musicians, presented eight programs in Orchestra Hall and expanded its series of free community concerts to a total of six venues. In addition to gaining performance experience, Civic musicians participated in coaching sessions and workshops with Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur and Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Makela. The Civic Orchestra of Chicago benefited from the mentorship of 30 CSO musicians who served as coaches, and 22 Civic musicians made more than 250 visits to eight Chicago Public Schools high school instrumental music programs.
$2,691,234 spent$98,680 earned by the program4% of program spendingRentals, Commissions, and Restaurant - A dining club and concessions are provided for audiences attending concerts and catering is provided for certain internal events.
$1,457,771 spent$90,455 earned by the program2% of program spendingRentals, Commissions, and Restaurant - Hall Rentals - Performance space provided to Chicagoland arts organizations.
$1,194,933 spent$921,547 earned by the program2% of program spendingMedia and Royalty - Radio Broadcast series, in-house recording label, audio recordings in compact disc and digital download formats.
$445,202 spent$21,042 earned by the program1% of program spendingRetail Sales - Music-related merchandise is available for purchase at The Symphony Store and online.
$264,684 spent$183,071 earned by the program0% of program spendingRentals, Commissions, and Restaurant - Parking lot provided for audiences' convenience to attend concerts.
$198,369 spent$319,583 earned by the program0% of program spendingOther Program Services - Program Book Advertising
$68,965 spent$118,900 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 10 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $68,036,377.
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 2020 to 2021, from $475M to $577M (+21%).
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 (56% 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
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.
Board chair
Mary Louise Gorno
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
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 310 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: $6.2M 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 310 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; 77% 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 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.
Against its field
Chicago Symphony Orchestra runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 43 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 43 arts & culture nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
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.
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. Screen this nonprofit · 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 310 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,612,244 to it, the largest being ZELL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,107,000). 240 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Chicago Symphony Orchestra have?
- IRS filings report 310 organizations giving $98,612,244 in grants to Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 240 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 310 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