Skip to content
Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation at a glance

· Community foundation

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (The Foundation) is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit organization established in December 1999 to support programs & projects that improve energy efficiency, develop renewable resources, and preserve natural areas and wildlife habitats in Illinois.

$68M
Granted FY2024still arriving
78
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$47M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$132MEducation$5.8MRecreation & Sports$4.1MFood & Nutrition$2.7MHousing & Shelter$2.4MAnimals$2.1MCommunity Improvement$295kScience & Tech$268kOther$0
02FY2024 · 78 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k34 grants · $179k
  • $10k–50k23 grants · $526k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $833k
  • $250k+17 grants · $66M
$20,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Prairie State Conservation Coalition$47,147,561
Heartland Community College$2,000,000
Homewood-Flossmoor CHSD #233$2,000,000
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County$2,000,000
County of Lake$2,000,000
Openlands$1,529,452
The Conservation Fund$1,510,000
Oak Park Residence Corporation$1,400,000
Academy For Global Citizenship$1,200,000
Forest Preserve District of Kane County$1,074,150
Severson Dells Educational Foundation$833,035
Academy For Global Citizenship$800,000
Park District of Oak Park$711,463
Nature Conservancy$664,440
The Conservation Fund$449,075
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $300k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 75% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Friends Of The Kankakee: $92k → 12%Gateway Services Inc: $9k → 13%Friends Of The Kankakee: $42k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $23k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $17k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $16k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $11k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $5k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $5k → 12%Friends Of The Kankakee: $3k → 12%Main Stay Therapeutic Farm Inc: $75k → 6%Austin Childcare Providers': $3k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 12% of Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 98% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 87%.

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 5.4% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$129M · 111 repeat orgs$18M to everyone else

111 repeat relationships: 34 still active in FY2024, 77 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

111
167

Total granted

$129M
$11M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+32%
+36%

Still filing today

56%
29%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7.2M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureRecreation & SportsHealthOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • O
    OPENLANDS
    6× · 2017–2024 · $7.2M · revenue +166% · 27% of their budget
  • CITIZENS FOR CONSERVATION INC
    6× · 2018–2023 · $5.8M · revenue +85% · 48% of their budget
  • JD
    JO DAVIESS CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $3.1M · revenue +62% · 35% of their budget

Funded once

  • CT
    Campton Township
    one grant, 2023 · $1.6M
  • NS
    North Shore Sanitary District
    one grant, 2019 · $1.5M
  • RI
    Rock Island County Forest Preserve District
    one grant, 2022 · $1.0M
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Chicago Parks Foundation

The Chicago Parks Foundation is a separate 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that also serves as the strategic partner for the coordination of fundraising and charitable resources for the Chicago Park District.

Recreation & Sports
2
Chicago's Environmental Fund
—
3
Forest Preserve Foundation Inc

The mission of the forest preserve foundation is to engage in protecting and restoring the treasured natural habitats within the forest preserve of cook county and to enhance outdoor experiences of all communities.we will do this by…

Environment
4
Humiston Woods Nature Center Inc
—
5
Illinois Park and Recreation Foundation

The foundation was formed to provide support, funding, and in-kind donations for educational programming and research that will benefit the illinois park and recreation association and citizens of illinois.

Philanthropy
6
Friends of the Parks

Friends of the parks inspires, equips, and mobilizes a diverse chicago to ensure an equitable park system for a healthy chicago.

Recreation & Sports
7
Natural Resources Foundation of

To protect wisconsin's lands, waters, and wildlife by providing funding, leading partnerships, and connecting all people with nature.

—
8
Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve

Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve engages in land and wildlife stewardship nature education and interpretive programs that support Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve. Our mission is to protect Edgewoods extraordinary biodiversity and…

Environment
9
Orland Park Open Lands Corporation

The mission is to review, evaluate and identify the present and future open land needs of the community and to acquire and preserve natural areas, including habitats for endangered and threatened species, high quality natural communities,…

—
10
Cook Waterfowl Foundation
—
11
Chicago Gateway Green Committee

To beautify chicagoland's expressway system, its gateways andneighborhoods surrounding the expressways.

Environment
12
Lincoln Park Zoological Society

Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…

Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves; the most unlike its peers is The Nature Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

121 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 121 of the 292 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

30
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
44
Early backer (in before they grew)
118/121
Grantees still filing
85/121
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PRAIRIE STATE CONSERVATION COALITION: $47,223,561 · OtherPRAIRIE STATE CONSERVATION COALITIONOPENLANDS: $7,199,943 · OtherOPENLANDSMacon County Conservation District: $4,288,900 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $4,247,695 · Other+134 more: $54,959,258 · Other+134 moreCITIZENS FOR CONSERVATION INC: $5,801,419 · EnvironmentCITIZENS FOR CONSERV…JO DAVIESS CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $3,074,682 · EnvironmentJO DAVIESS CONSERVAT…THE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $2,920,000 · EnvironmentTHE CONSERVATION FUN…NATURAL LAND INSTITUTE: $2,682,470 · EnvironmentNATURAL LAND INSTITU…ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY: $2,593,877 · EnvironmentILLINOIS AUDUBON SOC…THE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $2,210,308 · EnvironmentTHE CONSERVATION FOU…GRAND PRAIRIE FRIENDS: $2,130,756 · EnvironmentGRAND PRAIRIE FRIEND…+37 more: $5,858,499 · Environment+37 moreACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL: $2,000,000 · EducationIllinois Institute of Technology: $680,479 · EducationUniversity of Chicago: $500,000 · EducationLEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL: $295,152 · Education+6 more: $135,172 · EducationCOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF PHP: $507,232 · Community ImprovementNEIGHBORSPACE: $31,481 · Community ImprovementFRIENDS OF THE KANKAKEE: $213,161 · Human ServicesMAIN STAY THERAPEUTIC FARM INC: $75,000 · Human ServicesPRESERVATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING INC: $171,360 · Housing & ShelterFriends of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge: $63,163 · PhilanthropyFOREFRONT: $60,000 · PhilanthropyPRAIRIE LANDS FOUNDATION: $47,186 · Philanthropy
Other$117,919,357Environment$27,272,011Education$3,610,803Community Improvement$538,713Human Services$288,161Housing & Shelter$171,360Philanthropy$170,349

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10k$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPRAIRIE STATE CONSERVATION COALITION: $47,223,561 over 5y, 99% of budgetOPENLANDS: $7,199,943 over 6y, 27% of budgetCITIZENS FOR CONSERVATION INC: $5,801,419 over 6y, 48% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $4,247,695 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetJO DAVIESS CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $3,074,682 over 8y, 35% of budgetTHE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $2,920,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetNATURAL LAND INSTITUTE: $2,682,470 over 7y, 33% of budgetILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY: $2,593,877 over 8y, 64% of budgetTHE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $2,210,308 over 4y, 48% of budgetGRAND PRAIRIE FRIENDS: $2,130,756 over 7y, 32% of budgetHEARTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $2,000,000 over 1y, 80% of budgetACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL: $2,000,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetOAK PARK RESIDENCE CORPORATION: $2,000,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetTHE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTY: $1,888,640 over 7y, 51% of budgetSEVERSON DELLS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $850,835 over 3y, 42% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: $824,696 over 8y, 98% of budgetCLIFFTOP NFP: $823,793 over 8y, 82% of budgetHEARTLANDS CONSERVANCY: $748,797 over 6y, 25% of budgetFRANKLIN CREEK CONSERVATION ASSOC: $730,019 over 7y, 83% of budgetMcHenry County Conservation Foundation: $726,344 over 6y, 74% of budgetIllinois Institute of Technology: $680,479 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMIDDLE ROCK CONSERVATION PARTNERS: $522,000 over 5y, 56% of budgetCOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF PHP: $507,232 over 2y, 41% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $500,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPARKLANDS FOUNDATION INC: $415,518 over 5y, 99% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE FOREST PRESERVES: $368,342 over 8y, 2.5% of budgetLEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL: $295,152 over 2y, 5.4% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE KANKAKEE: $213,161 over 6y, 72% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $206,700 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFOREST PRESERVE FRIENDS FOUNDATION: $176,682 over 7y, 10.0% of budgetPRESERVATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING INC: $171,360 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE NATURE INSTITUTE: $159,600 over 2y, 23% of budgetLAND CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $123,904 over 6y, 39% of budgetPRAIRIE HILLS RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT INC: $120,345 over 4y, 13% of budgetADVOCATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $115,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE WETLANDS INITIATIVE: $111,199 over 6y, 1.5% of budgetFRIENDS OF NACHUSA GRASSLANDS: $111,000 over 6y, 7.2% of budgetPRESERVATION FOUNDATION OF THE LAKE COUNTY FOREST PRESERVES: $100,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetOGLE NATURAL AREAS ALLIANCE: $97,980 over 1y, 94% of budgetPRAIRIE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF OGLE COUNTY: $93,833 over 5y, 58% of budgetLINCOLN PARK CONSERVANCY: $89,862 over 4y, 3.1% of budgetBARRINGTON AREA CONSERVATION TRUST INC: $85,326 over 6y, 6.5% of budgetNATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $75,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE CHICAGO RIVER: $75,000 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetMAIN STAY THERAPEUTIC FARM INC: $75,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetRAVENSWOOD BUDLONG CONGREGATION: $71,659 over 1y, 4.8% of budgetBLACK OAKS CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE RENEWABLE LIVING: $70,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetFRIENDS OF ILLINOIS NATURE PRESERVES: $67,000 over 3y, 6.7% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds PRAIRIE STATE CONSERVATION COALITION ↗
  • Who funds OPENLANDS ↗
  • Who funds CITIZENS FOR CONSERVATION INC ↗
  • Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
  • Who funds JO DAVIESS CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds THE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds NATURAL LAND INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds THE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GRAND PRAIRIE FRIENDS ↗
  • Who funds HEARTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds ACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds OAK PARK RESIDENCE CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds THE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTY ↗
  • Who funds SEVERSON DELLS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

OpenlandsThe Morton ArboretumMetropolitan Mayors C…Hamill Family Foundat…The Lumpkin Family Fo…Oberweiler FoundationThe Dupage Community …Grand Victoria Founda…Fulk Family Foundatio…Gaylord and Dorothy D…Northwestern Universi…The Conservation Fund…
OpenlandsIL61.1× affinity29 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Openlands · The Morton Arboretum · Metropolitan Mayors Caucus · Hamill Family Foundation · The Lumpkin Family Foundation · Oberweiler Foundation · The Dupage Community Foundation · Grand Victoria Foundation · Fulk Family Foundation Inc · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Northwestern University · The Conservation Fund a Nonprofit Corporation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
34report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 292 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Illinois Clean Energy’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home