How Does the Sinha Kikeri Foundation Give in Chicago?
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Grantees include women’s health organizations like Planned Parenthood of Illinois. Photo: RozenskiP/shutterstock
Sales force strategy and effective marketing are Prabha Sinha’s specialties in the business world. He’s the co-founder of ZS and a Chicago entrepreneurship Hall of Fame inductee, and along with his wife, Anita, Sinha has been giving substantial sums of money through the family’s foundation since 2012.
Since this is a low-key funder with a light web presence, here’s what we know so far about the Sinha Kikeri Foundation.
A Chicago-Area Focus
Although Prabha Sinha pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, his philanthropy is largely centered on the city of Chicago. He used to be a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and his global professional services firm ZS is based in suburban Evanston, Illinois. Since his foundation formed, almost all grants have stayed in Chicago or the northern suburbs of the city.
Education, Arts and Women’s Causes
Although the Sinha Kikeri Foundation lacks a website and isn’t very transparent, tax records indicate that a few specific interests typically drive this private family funder’s grantmaking. The arts are clearly important to the Sinhas, and Anita has chaired the board of governors of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Chicago High School for the Arts and the Chicago Humanities Festival are some other examples of this funder’s arts grantees.
Women’s issues are also a key component of this foundation’s grantmaking. Anita has worked with the Chicago Foundation for Women, to which the Sinhas provided grant support. The foundation also supports women’s health through Planned Parenthood of Illinois and backs Women Employed for its educational services. Overall, the Sinha Kikeri Foundation appears to favor social justice causes that hit close to home in the Chicago region.
More generally, education is an interest of the Sinhas, via grantees like the North Shore Country Day School. General human services causes, such as hunger and other basic needs, also catch their attention. Past funding has gone to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and a Chicago branch of the Salvation Army.
Grants by Invitation Only
Unlike many private family foundations in Chicago, the Sinha Kikeri Foundation is not open to unsolicited requests and typically sticks to organizations that it has either worked with in the past, or that have a personal connection to the family. With this funder, grants can be as low as $100 but don’t typically get much higher than $25,000. This is a very family-run foundation with no paid employees and the founding couple as its only foundation managers.
IP features the Sinha Kikeri Foundation and many other local grantmakers in our Chicago and Great Lakes funding guide.
