· Community foundation
Community Foundation of Northern Il
The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois ("CFNIL") was established to serve as a catalyst for giving and a promoter of philanthropy.
Read this first · the figures below need context
53% of Community Foundation of Northern Il’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Community Foundation Of Northern Il, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 131 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Community Foundation of Northern Il named its own grantees at scale: 113 organizations, $4M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 121 grants below total $3,637,438 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $7,984,479 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $4,347,041 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k24 grants · $172k
- $10k–50k80 grants · $1.8M
- $50k–250k16 grants · $1.4M
- $250k+1 grant · $264k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ROCKFORD UNIVERSITY | $264,333 |
| ILLINOIS GROWTH ENTERPRISES | $212,392 |
| THE KJELLSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION | $129,471 |
| ROCKFORD PARK DISTRICT FOUNDATION | $117,951 |
| FRIENDS OF NACHUSA GRASSLANDS | $117,440 |
| UNITED WAY OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY | $86,518 |
| FREEPORT SCHOOL DISTRICT | $82,387 |
| BOYLAN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL | $79,273 |
| CARPENTER'S PLACE | $75,572 |
| BRIGHTPOINT | $75,000 |
| YMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY | $66,923 |
| SEVERSON DELLS EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $61,200 |
| ROCKFORD AREA CRIMESTOPPERS INC | $60,000 |
| PATRIOTS GATEWAY COMMUNITY CENTER | $58,626 |
| KFACT | $58,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $2.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +43% since the first grant, against -2% for the ones you funded once.
151 repeat relationships — 108 still active in FY2023, 43 since wound down; 51 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $564k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- RUROCKFORD UNIVERSITY8× · 2017–2024 · $1.8M · revenue +5%
- IGILLINOIS GROWTH ENTERPRISES8× · 2017–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +47% · 69% of their budget
- RAROCKFORD AREA ARTS COUNCIL8× · 2017–2024 · $935k · revenue +143% · 82% of their budget
Funded once
- OHOSF Healthcare Foundationgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $526k · revenue +38%
- OCOregon Community School District #220one grant, 2017 · $107k
- NINORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITYone grant, 2021 · $65k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To provide analysis and commentary on cultural, economic, political, and educational issues through a published monthly opinion magazine and to operate continuing adult educational conferences in american and european literature and…
To support housing and community development ventures
The organization provides low income affordable housing under illinois housing development authority guidelines.
The rockford area economic development council cultivates opportunities for primary job growth that increase the economic well-being of our region
Rockford area community endowment is a local foundation committed to assisting rockford area residents, businesses, government and volunteer organizations to expand opportunities locally. race was founded in 1964.
Rock river valley blood center, in partnership with our community, is dedicated to providing safe, high value blood products and services to people in need.
Inspire communitys interest in the past
To improve lives by sharing community resources
Our purpose is to provide financial services to our members with competitive rates while maintaining our financial stability.
Rockford Bell Credit Union is a member owned community credit union chartered by the state. We are dedicated to providing quality financial service for our membership.
To challenge young people to know christ as lord, apply god's truth in all areas of life, love others sacrifically, and achieve the highest level of knowledge and skill in order to serve god and others
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Foundation for Northwest Il and the most unlike its peers is The Kjellstrom Family Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 16% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
173 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 173 of the 255 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Community Foundation of Northern IL ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ILLINOIS GROWTH ENTERPRISES ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD AREA ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF NACHUSA GRASSLANDS ↗
- Who funds ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ZION DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds OSF Healthcare Foundation ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD AREA CRIME STOPPERS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD PARK DISTRICT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE KJELLSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ROCHELLE AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MILL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB ASSOCIATION OF ROCKFORD ↗
- Who funds DISCOVERY CENTER MUSEUM OF ROCKFORD INC ↗
- Who funds YMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY ↗
- Who funds SHELTER CARE MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOME & AID SOCIETY OF ILL ↗
- Who funds CARPENTER'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds MIDWAY VILLAGE & MUSEUM CENTER ↗
- Who funds KFACT INC KEEPING FAMILIES & COMMUNITIES TOGETHER ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD AREA HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds ALIGNMENT ROCKFORD ↗
- Who funds HARRY AND DELLA BURPEE MUSEUM ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds HIGHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds KIDS AROUND THE WORLD INC ↗
- Who funds SEVERSON DELLS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STATELINE YOUTH FOR CHRIST ↗
- Who funds REGIONAL ACCESS & MOBILIZATION PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
- Who funds Marquette University ↗
- Who funds Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence ↗
- Who funds COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS INC ↗
- Who funds NORTHWESTERN IL AREA AGENCY ON AGING ↗
- Who funds ROCKFORD PROMISE ↗
- Who funds NW HOMESTART INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: United Way of Rock River Valley · The Kjellstrom Family Foundation · Bergstrom Inc Charitable Foundation Xxxxx2008 · Blazer Foundation · The Ben Harding Family Foundation · The David & Colleen Anderson Charitable Foundation · Tracy E Anderson Charitable Foundation · Kristin L Anderson Charitable Foundation · John & Linda Anderson Charitable Foundation · Guy Reno Family Foundation · Woodward Governor Charitable Trust · Sjostrom & Sons Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Community Foundation of Northern Il funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.