Illinois · Nonprofit
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 271 organizations whose IRS filings report $76,954,289 to it, the largest being Fulk Family Foundation Inc ($7,375,000). 177 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $81M
- Funders on record
- 271
- Grants received
- $77M
- Net assets
- $200M
What Lyric Opera of Chicago does
Mission
We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance the development of the art form of opera by: - Producing and performing consistently thrilling, world-class opera, with a balanced repertoire that encompasses core classics, lesser-known masterpieces, and new works. - Creating a diverse, innovative, wide-ranging program of community engagement and education activities that reaches the widest possible public. - Developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
During the fiscal year, 40 opera performances and 8 concert/recital performances were performed by Lyric Opera of Chicago. These performances were attended by approximately 118,269 people.
$58,889,615 spent$15,067,236 earned by the program97% of program spendingLyric unlimited, an initiative of Lyric Opera of Chicago, offers a multifaceted program of expanded community engagement and artistic initiatives and includes lyric's longstanding educational programs. Lyric seeks to enrich the lives of chicago-area children and adults through high-quality, accessible arts education, which focuses on cultivating a lifelong appreciation of opera and creating audiences for the future. Lyric's school programs embrace arts education as a core subject and promote cross-curricular integration while fulfilling state learning standards. Community programs provide education on a variety of levels, from novice to expert, which heighten the opera-going experience. 44 youth and adult programs were held throughout the year. Attendance for these educational activities totaled approximately 28,219. Please note, as required by the instructions, the revenue disclosed here does not include contributed revenue for these programs.
$1,302,224 spent$2,134 earned by the program2% of program spendingDuring the fiscal year, there were 9 presentations and events held in the facility with total attendance of approximately 5,325 people. Additionally, dining space was used by building management.
$545,612 spent$20,059 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $60,737,451.
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 $270M to $312M (+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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 2% · 2021 0% · 2022 13% · 2023 4% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
58% of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Sylvia Neil
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 82 funders to 115 funders, grant income rose $4.1M → $10M.
17 of 271 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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: $7.9M from 6 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money Lyric Opera of Chicago raised.
From the IRS filings of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 271 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
Lyric Opera of Chicago has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 15% · 2019 42% · 2020 13% · 2021 12% · 2022 22% · 2023 12% — diversifying over time.
“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
47% of Lyric Opera of Chicago's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
73% of Lyric Opera of Chicago's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
Lyric Opera of Chicago's funding base is broadening — from 82 funders to 115 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Lyric Opera of Chicago receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $890k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$890k
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 Lyric Opera of Chicago
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Lyric Opera of Chicago: 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 Lyric Opera of Chicago?
- Lyric Opera of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 271 organizations whose IRS filings report $76,954,289 to it, the largest being Fulk Family Foundation Inc ($7,375,000). 177 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Lyric Opera of Chicago have?
- IRS filings report 271 organizations giving $76,954,289 in grants to Lyric Opera of Chicago, 177 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Lyric Opera of Chicago?
- Fulk Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $7,375,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Lyric Opera of Chicago 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 Lyric Opera of Chicago →
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 271 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