Illinois · Nonprofit
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 315 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,197,540 to it, the largest being THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION ($11,010,000). 240 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $66M
- Funders on record
- 315
- Grants received
- $47M
- Net assets
- $294M
What Ravinia Festival Association does
Mission
Our mission is to enrich lives through the transformative power of music. Ravinia honors our vibrant history of classical music while celebrating a multitude of musical genres. Through exceptional performances, educational programs, professional training, and community engagement, we strive to create memorable experiences that connect people, foster curiosity, and ensure that the joy of live music is accessible to all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Founded in 1904, ravinia is both the longest-running and the most artistically diverse outdoor music festival in north america. Approximately 400,000 people visit ravinia between june and september each year across more than 100 separate events that highlight genres as wide-ranging as the audiences. Classical music is a special focus at ravinia dating back to its first concerts, including a regular series of performances by the chicago symphony orchestra, which has formally been in summer residence at the festival since 1936.
$39,461,734 spent$29,053,299 earned by the program86% of program spendingRavinia's steans institute (steans) is a world-renowned artist development program offering emerging professional musicians from around the world immersive programs to hone their talents since its inception in 1988. Steans has provided its tuition-free services to more than 1,700 musicians who have gone on to cultivate highly visible and successful careers in performance, leadership, and music education. The institute's offerings include the classical chamber music-focused piano & strings program and singers program; the jazz program, which advances composition and small-group collaboration; and the bridges competition, which further develops and premieres the winning composers' new works that bridge the rich connections between jazz and classical chamber music. Each summer, fellowships are awarded to approximately 60 emerging professional classical pianists and string players, classical singers, and jazz artists. Fellowships in each program are highly sought after, and each fellow enjoys personalized guidance from the world-class faculty of headlining artists and scholars, as well as attendance at ravinia concerts and social activities, forming lasting connections with peers and…
$3,974,795 spent$27,399 earned by the program9% of program spendingRavinia's reach teach play (rtp) education and community engagement programs provide access to the transformative power of music. Our programs serve more than 50,000 people each year, offering 12 distinct programs that reach across the chicago area to promote music education and appreciation among children and families, teach the foundations of music by supplementing classroom curriculum, and encourage students to play music through dedicated jazz and orchestral performance studies, family-oriented classes, and more. At its core, rtp is about opening doors for students, teachers, and families in under-resourced chicago-area communities to access and experience the joy and positive impact of music. More than 20,000 students are served through ravinia's rtp programs each year.
$2,366,048 spent$36,400 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $45,802,577.
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 $234M to $275M (+18%).
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 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 23% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
51% of RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION’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. 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.
Chief executive
Jeffrey Haydon
President & CEO
Board chair
Christopher J Klein
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 96 funders to 176 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $12M.
22 of 315 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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: $4.4M from 10 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION raised.
From the IRS filings of RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 315 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
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 13% · 2018 12% · 2019 20% · 2020 39% · 2021 43% · 2022 44% · 2023 40% — 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 RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 76% 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
88% of RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $210k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$210k
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 RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION: 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 RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION?
- RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 315 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,197,540 to it, the largest being THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION ($11,010,000). 240 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 315 organizations giving $47,197,540 in grants to RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION, 240 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION?
- THE NEGAUNEE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $11,010,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION 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 Ravinia Festival Association →
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 315 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