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Illinois · Nonprofit

Animal Welfare League

Animal Welfare League (Illinois) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,460,022 to it, the largest being HARRY E CHAMBERLAIN & ADRIENNE S CHAMBERLAIN ($736,146). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$6.2M
Funders on record
26
Grants received
$1.5M
Net assets
$24M
15/26 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%
01What it does

What Animal Welfare League does

Mission

The Organization prevents cruelty to animals by the advancement of humane education and maintenance of animal shelters. The Animal Welfare League also provides animal adoption programs, veterinary, and clinical services.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Organization provides food, shelter, and medical care for unwanted, stray or lost animals. It offers spay/neuter services and veteranary service for limited income pet owners. It also provides information about humane treatment of animals, animal rescue, animal cruelty investigations, animal assisted therapy and a pet food pantry.

    $3,139,715 spent$3,521,829 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,139,715.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($6.8M) Expenses 100 ($6.9M) Net assets 100 ($15M)2018 Revenue 93 ($6.3M) Expenses 94 ($6.4M) Net assets 102 ($16M)2019 Revenue 80 ($5.4M) Expenses 71 ($4.9M) Net assets 103 ($16M)2020 Revenue 108 ($7.4M) Expenses 63 ($4.3M) Net assets 126 ($19M)2021 Revenue 53 ($3.6M) Expenses 60 ($4.1M) Net assets 137 ($21M)2022 Revenue 55 ($3.7M) Expenses 59 ($4.0M) Net assets 114 ($17M)2023 Revenue 58 ($4.0M) Expenses 63 ($4.3M) Net assets 117 ($18M)2024 Revenue 61 ($4.2M) Expenses 57 ($3.9M) Net assets 134 ($20M)2025 Revenue 91 ($6.2M) Expenses 58 ($4.0M) Net assets 155 ($24M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (91)Expenses (58)Net assets (155)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $22M to $18M (−19%).

$16M
$16M
$16M
$20M
$22M
$18M
$18M
$21M
$24M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 8% · 2022 13% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

31% of Animal Welfare League’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (74% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,665 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$46k
’17
−$112k
’18
$533k
’19
$3.0M
’20
−$486k
’21
−$281k
’22
−$382k
’23
$289k
’24
$2.2M
’25
19
months of
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

Chris Higens

President/Exec. Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1313111098888
Joined·+1+2+1+0+0+3+0+0
No longer listed·14211300
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $68k → $196k.

2 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 Animal Welfare League’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

Animal Welfare League leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

50%
largest funder
91%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 60% · 2019 48% · 2020 23% · 2021 55% · 2022 58% · 2023 50% — 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.

How long its funders stay

25% of Animal Welfare League's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Animal Welfare League draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 13 states in all.

WA
IL
WI
NY
MA
CT
CO
VA
DE
AZ
NC
GA
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Animal Welfare League runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 813 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin36% · top quartile
Months of reserve18.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 813 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Animal Welfare League

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 21%Fundraising 0%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

82%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Animal Welfare League: 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.

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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 Animal Welfare League?
Animal Welfare League (Illinois) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,460,022 to it, the largest being HARRY E CHAMBERLAIN & ADRIENNE S CHAMBERLAIN ($736,146). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Animal Welfare League have?
IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,460,022 in grants to Animal Welfare League, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Animal Welfare League?
HARRY E CHAMBERLAIN & ADRIENNE S CHAMBERLAIN is the largest funder on record, with $736,146 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Animal Welfare League 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 Animal Welfare League →

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 26 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing