Chicago Horticultural Society

Chicago Horticultural Society, operating as Chicago Botanic Garden and headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, is a non-profit botanical institution that serves as a prime recipient of federal grants and prime contractor for native plant seed collection, botanical support, and ecological restoration services. The organization competes full-and-open across all awards with no set-aside designations; it operates predominantly as a grant recipient and contract prime (97% of awards), with minimal subcontract activity.

The Chicago Botanic Garden's federal footprint centers on two distinct capability areas. The primary capability is native plant seed collection, propagation, and botanical support across western United States regions — conducting field collection, preservation, and research to support habitat restoration and land management on public lands. Recent contract examples include a $427,666 delivery order for headquarters botanical support services (award date October 1, 2023), an $219,978 Eastern Mojave Seed Collection contract (award date August 23, 2023), and a $471,606 Region 4 Great Basin Seed Collection delivery order (award date September 19, 2022). The secondary capability is plant conservation research and education — operating research experiences for undergraduates (REU) programs, conducting plant phenology and climate resilience studies, and delivering community science and urban agriculture education programs focused on food security and plant-based wellness. Recent grant examples include a $704,927 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (CFDA 45.312, awarded September 1, 2026) to develop coordinated plant management frameworks across botanic garden institutions, a $465,089 NSF Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) REU award (awarded May 1, 2025) to train 10 undergraduates per summer in plant conservation research, a $897,744 NSF grant on native plant alternatives to urban turfgrass lawns (awarded October 1, 2024), and an $873,041 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cooperative agreement (awarded December 20, 2024) to coordinate the Seeds of Success national program and support the National Interagency Seed and Restoration Center.

Customer concentration is extreme and single-agency dependent. The Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management National Office accounts for 77 awards with $60.8 million in combined potential value — representing roughly 98% of total potential value across all 246 awards. The National Science Foundation ranks second with 28 awards, followed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (8 awards, $779 thousand), the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration (3 awards, $30 thousand), and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (9 awards). The BLM National Office dominates both award volume and potential value; no other customer agency approaches parity.

The Chicago Botanic Garden places work under five parent Indefinite Delivery Contracts issued by BLM, with 16 task orders under IDC 140L0618D0041 ($1.8 million combined potential value), 13 task orders under 140L0618D0045 ($3 million), and smaller volumes under 140L0618D0047, 140L0618D0052, and 140L0618D0004. Award trajectory shows steep decline: 22 awards in 2022, 22 in 2023, 8 in 2024, 4 in 2025, and 1 in 2026. Only two awards face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating minimal recompete exposure in that window. The organization's work is categorized primarily under NAICS 541512 (Environmental Consulting Services) and PSC code for Other Environmental Services; combined dollars obligated ($79.8 million) exceed combined potential value by 29%, reflecting task order drawdowns against standing BLM contracts.

The Chicago Botanic Garden holds sub-award positions on three NSF-funded collaborative restoration research projects led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (sub-awards from 2022, 2023, January 2025, and September 2025), where it provides plant micropropagation, trait data collection, common garden management, and soil microbiome analysis in support of root/shoot variation studies and alfalfa-kernza intercropping experiments. It also holds a sub-award from the National Forest Foundation (May 1, 2025) to engage tribal youth in community science monitoring of rare forest plants.

Federal grant work spans NSF Biological Sciences programs (plant phenology, climate adaptation, REU site management), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (community science, bilingual education outreach), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (urban agriculture workforce training through Windy City Harvest, CFDA code via BFRDP; GUSNIP produce prescription program VeggieRx), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cooperative agreements (Seeds of Success program coordination and national seed restoration center planning), and U.S. Geological Survey cooperative agreements (rangeland restoration seedling trait quantification). The organization acts as prime recipient across all visible grant awards; its subcontract role is limited to collaborative research supporting larger NSF and foundation-led initiatives.