Illinois · Nonprofit
PRESERVATION CHICAGO
PRESERVATION CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,065,172 to it, the largest being ALPHAWOOD FOUNDATION ($335,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $2.6M
What Preservation Chicago does
Mission
Throughout the city of chicago, Preservation Chicago is committed to strengthening the vibrancy of chicago's economy and quality of life by championing our historic built environment. Preservation Chicago protects and revitalizes chicago's irreplaceable architecture, neighborhoods and urban green spaces. We influence stakeholders toward creative reuse and preservation through advocacy, outreach, education, and partnership.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
2024 proved to be remarkable. Many long-endangered buildings finally emerged as preservation 'wins' through landmarking. Preservation Chicago has been deeply engaged with many of these long-term efforts and our leadership and involvement with these advocacy efforts proved decisive. After so many years of effort, to finally see these buildings in a safe place is both wonderfully exhilarating and provides as profound sense of relief. A few highlights include: century & the consumers building, thompson center, st. Adalbert parish complex, rector building, wax trax! Records, 161 e. Erie, harris trust & savings bank, kingdom baptist church, hyde park union church, werner brothers storage, ramova theater, marshall square theater, congress theater. Mars chocolate factory, crittenton anchorage, stock yards bank, humboldt park receptory building and stable, ludlow typograph company, and many more.our innovative leveraged impact advocacy model uses amplification and protection to catalyze the targeted strategic investment essential to allow our communities to begin to heal. This dynamic advocacy model has successfully harnessed the power of historic preservation and catalyzed hundreds of…
$440,593 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $440,593.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.4M to $2.6M (+88%).
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: 2021 10% · 2022 7% · 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of PRESERVATION CHICAGO’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Ward Miller
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $20k → $240k.
6 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 PRESERVATION CHICAGO’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
PRESERVATION CHICAGO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
33% 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 PRESERVATION CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 61% · 2019 37% · 2020 48% · 2021 38% · 2022 35% · 2023 25% — 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
50% of PRESERVATION CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
99% of PRESERVATION 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. $350k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
PRESERVATION CHICAGO runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like PRESERVATION 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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
34%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PRESERVATION 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 PRESERVATION CHICAGO?
- PRESERVATION CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,065,172 to it, the largest being ALPHAWOOD FOUNDATION ($335,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PRESERVATION CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,065,172 in grants to PRESERVATION CHICAGO, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PRESERVATION CHICAGO?
- ALPHAWOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $335,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PRESERVATION 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 Preservation Chicago →
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 16 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