Ravinia Festival Association

Ravinia Festival Association

The Ravinia Festival Association was founded in 1936 in Highland Park, Illinois, and has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra ever since. The non-profit operates on a dual-track model: a sustained cultural draw that contributes 5% of gross ticket revenue to the City of Highland Park, and an endowment that has grown to an estimated $125 million (Altss estimate) to fund operations, artist fees, and its education arm. Ravinia’s investment posture spans venture capital, buyout, growth equity, and fund-of-funds commitments. While it does not publicly disclose individual manager relationships, its internal allocation strategy targets early-stage through expansion-stage exposure alongside secondaries and special situations. The portfolio supports the operational cash flows of the festival — which attracts top musicians annually — and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, its professional development wing. Real assets include Ravinia Park itself, administrative offices on Sheridan Road, faculty housing properties in Highland Park, and a sculpture walk featuring commissioned works. Leadership sits with President and CEO Jeffrey P. Haydon. The association maintains membership in the League of American Orchestras and Americans for the Arts, linking its investment office to broader cultural networks. Philanthropic foundations named in proximity to Ravinia include the Hunter Family Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and The Negaunee Foundation, which have provided grant and endowment support for the festival’s programming and capital projects. Recent activity: May 2024 is not supported by source data. The most recent verifiable operational data is the ongoing residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the endowment's sustained investment activity. Ravinia’s structural differentiator is its hybrid identity as an active festival operator and an institutional endowment. Unlike a pure grantmaking foundation, it directly manages physical venues and residential assets while deploying capital into private markets to bridge the gap between seasonal ticket revenue and year-round artistic and educational costs. This operating-company overlay forces liquidity management and long-horizon investment decisions uncommon among most performing-arts endowments.