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Illinois · Nonprofit

The Arts Club of Chicago

The Arts Club of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $742,134 to it, the largest being SMART FAMILY FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS ($240,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$3.7M
Funders on record
22
Grants received
$742k
Net assets
$24M
9/22 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 32%
01What it does

What The Arts Club of Chicago does

Mission

The Arts Club of Chicago was formed as a means to encourage, foster, and develop higher standards of arts craftsmanship, and to maintain the city of chicago facility for the housing of galleries and exhibitions open to the public and free of charge.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Exhibitions, lectures, temporary garden installations, performances, hospitality, and other programs. The objective is to present artworks, and/or original performances and provide cultural programming, including various formats of events where acclaimed individuals or experts present information and lecture on relevant topics, to the membership and to the public to enrich a conversation in the arts.

    $2,379,404 spent$1,153,550 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,379,404.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($3.5M) Expenses 100 ($2.7M) Net assets 100 ($20M)2018 Revenue 161 ($5.6M) Expenses 114 ($3.0M) Net assets 104 ($21M)2019 Revenue 78 ($2.7M) Expenses 112 ($3.0M) Net assets 105 ($21M)2020 Revenue 80 ($2.8M) Expenses 106 ($2.8M) Net assets 105 ($21M)2021 Revenue 77 ($2.7M) Expenses 90 ($2.4M) Net assets 120 ($24M)2022 Revenue 4 ($152k) Expenses 106 ($2.8M) Net assets 106 ($21M)2023 Revenue 80 ($2.8M) Expenses 120 ($3.2M) Net assets 110 ($22M)2024 Revenue 106 ($3.7M) Expenses 131 ($3.5M) Net assets 118 ($24M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (106)Expenses (131)Net assets (118)Peer revenue range

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 $22M to $26M (+15%).

$21M
$22M
$22M
$22M
$26M
$23M
$24M
$25M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 20% · 2022 144%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

48% of The Arts Club of Chicago’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,377 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$797k
’17
$2.5M
’18
−$276k
’19
−$44k
’20
$278k
’21
−$2.7M
’22
−$446k
’23
$172k
’24
0.9
months of
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

Janine Mileaf

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed4041393939363344
Joined·+4+2+2+7+11+2+23
No longer listed·342714512
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $35k → $203k.

2 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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: $39k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago). These are real filings, and they are not money The Arts Club of Chicago raised.

From the IRS filings of The Arts Club of 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

The Arts Club of Chicago has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

32%
largest funder
55%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 53% · 2019 94% · 2020 41% · 2021 94% · 2022 52% · 2023 37% — 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

17% of The Arts Club of Chicago's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

87% of The Arts Club of Chicago's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

IL
MI
NY
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $45k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

The Arts Club of Chicago runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · above the median
Months of reserve0.9mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like The Arts Club 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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

66% of spending goes to programs.

Program 66%Management 34%Fundraising 1%

Governance

44
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Arts Club 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.

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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 The Arts Club of Chicago?
The Arts Club of Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $742,134 to it, the largest being SMART FAMILY FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS ($240,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does The Arts Club of Chicago have?
IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $742,134 in grants to The Arts Club of Chicago, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of The Arts Club of Chicago?
SMART FAMILY FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS is the largest funder on record, with $240,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like The Arts Club 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 Arts Club of 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 22 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