Illinois · Nonprofit
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $165,529 to it, the largest being FLYNN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($60,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.6M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $166k
- Net assets
- $14M
What American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois does
Mission
Defend freedom of speech, press, assembly, and other rights guaranteed by the us constitution and the constitution of the state of illinois.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legislative: initiatives for this year included an effort to reduce the trauma of family separation and improve youth outcomes by reducing barriers to relative placements when youth come under the care of the dcfs system. The legislation requires court oversight to find family members who can take youth into care - if they must be separated from birth parents - and establishes a kinship navigator program to assist in the process. The bill was signed into law and we are now monitoring its implementation. We also continued our advocacy to protect health data privacy. Although the legislation did not move this session, we successfully won commitments from legislators to work on legislation that will assure that our personal health data is protected when it is collected by third parties. We also successfully pushed a measure that makes an important reform to illinois law that seeks to reduce the frequency and damage of so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (slapp). The new law ensures that members of the news media can use the provisions of the law to reduce unnecessary and harassing actions against them. And we worked tirelessly in a coalition to encourage…
$1,202,162 spent77% of program spendingCommunications: the communications activities of the aclu of illinois are designed to: keep our members and supporters updated on the work of the organization; broadly inform and advance important developments in our work and issues of concern (constitutional issues) in the general public; and target messages that may move opinion leaders in support of our work. We utilize an array of communications tools in order to achieve these goals, from public speaking to social media, email communication with members and supporters, other written messages, and podcasts. The department is responsible for messages that reach thousands of people across the state of illinois during the year regarding the work of the organization.
$319,558 spent20% of program spendingChapters: in four discreet geographic areas across the state - urbana-champaign, bloomington-normal, springfield, and peoria - aclu members voluntarily gather together to form local chapters to advance the work of the organization in these areas. These chapters serve as a critical early warning system for civil liberties violations/concerns and often produce important public programs that address concerns that might be federal, statewide, or local. Finally, the chapters serve as representatives for the aclu in these communities, raising our profile by participating in local activities, from marches and parades to demonstrations and farmers markets. The chapters also play a critical role as conduits to local elected officials, including mayors, police leaders, and others. During this year, each of the chapters addressed local proposals to adopt and implement automatic license plate reader systems in their community; chapter members reached out to public officials to share aclu concerns about privacy raised by the systems. In addition, chapter members focused on ways to ensure the smooth implementation of the pretrial fairness act, ending the use of money bond in illinois. We also…
$44,330 spent3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,566,050.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $11M to $14M (+30%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Colleen Connell
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 4 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $17k → $7k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $685k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Civil Liberties Union Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS’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
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 51% · 2019 74% · 2020 48% · 2021 44% · 2022 43% · 2023 75% — growing more concentrated.
“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.
How long its funders stay
13% of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
99% of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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.
Organizations like AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS
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.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS: 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 AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS?
- AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $165,529 to it, the largest being FLYNN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($60,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $165,529 in grants to AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS?
- FLYNN FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $60,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF ILLINOIS 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.
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 19 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