Illinois · Nonprofit
ACORN EQUALITY FUND
ACORN EQUALITY FUND (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,039 to it, the largest being EQUALITY ILLINOIS INSTITUTE ($35,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $64k
- Net assets
- $218k
What Acorn Equality Fund does
Mission
To provide funding to organizations, to provide scholarships to individuals, and to provide advocacy, support, and leadership development within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
All program expenses
$5,809 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $5,809.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $92k to $140k (+52%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
73% of ACORN EQUALITY FUND’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Board chair
Paul Steenis
Ad Int Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $6k → $7k.
3 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ACORN EQUALITY FUND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ACORN EQUALITY FUND leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ACORN EQUALITY FUND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 99% · 2021 96% · 2022 70% · 2023 99% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
96% of ACORN EQUALITY FUND's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ACORN EQUALITY FUND has grown faster than three-quarters of the 695 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 695 civil rights nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like ACORN EQUALITY FUND
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACORN EQUALITY FUND: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ACORN EQUALITY FUND?
- ACORN EQUALITY FUND (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,039 to it, the largest being EQUALITY ILLINOIS INSTITUTE ($35,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ACORN EQUALITY FUND have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $64,039 in grants to ACORN EQUALITY FUND, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACORN EQUALITY FUND?
- EQUALITY ILLINOIS INSTITUTE is the largest funder on record, with $35,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACORN EQUALITY FUND find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Acorn Equality →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 6 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing