The Annual Fund (unrestricted) supports the museum in every way, from education programming for over a million and a half visitors each year, to conservation of the museum’s 260,000 works, to keeping the doors open 362 days a year for all to enjoy.

The President's Exhibition-Acquisition Fund (restricted) directly sustains the museum's mission to present an encyclopedic collection of art to the public by helping to present exhibitions and to acquire works that might otherwise come to the Art Institute.

Since the first bequest more than 100 years ago, the Art Institute has been continually enriched by the generous legacies of friends who remember the museum in their estate plans. No gift is too small to support the museum in continuing to prosper, build and maintain its world-class collection, and to educate and enlighten 1.4 million visitors each year.