Illinois · Nonprofit
JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,697 to it, the largest being TIDES CENTER ($563,146). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $891M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $709k
- Net assets
- $8.7B
What John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation does
Program
(see statement 27)
$9,897,863 spent
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
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 $8.2B to $9.5B (+15%).
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
Martha L Minow
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2022: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $69k → $23k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% 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 JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION’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
JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 79% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2021 94% · 2022 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
89% of JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $77k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $632k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 153 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 153 philanthropy nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Organizations like JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION: 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 JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION?
- JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,697 to it, the largest being TIDES CENTER ($563,146). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $708,697 in grants to JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION?
- TIDES CENTER is the largest funder on record, with $563,146 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION 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 5 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing