Illinois · Nonprofit
BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS
BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS (Illinois) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,256,601 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,204,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2026
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $6.1M
What Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods does
Mission
Located in the historic ryerson family home amoung pristine woodlands, Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods promotes the importance of nature for nurturing personal and community well-being, cultivating creativity, and inspiring learning.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Programs
Smith nature symposium - for 40 years, the symposium has been an occasion to celebrate nature and spend the evening with luminaries who have made a meaningful contribution to the science of conservation and deepened our understanding of the natural world. From roger tory peterson to sibylle and robert redford, the event honorees have represented the most accomplished nature leaders in the country. The symposium memorializes the significant civic legacy of hermon dunlap and ellen thorne smith, who donated their land and cabin to help form ryerson woods.
$112,933 spent$21,820 earned by the program7% of program spendingArt programs - at ease veterans program:brushwood center's at ease program is an innovative approach to empower military veterans' wellbeing through a series of nature-based art and photography workshops. This program is offered at no charge to military veterans thanks to our supporters and partners. At ease builds on research showing that exposure to nature and the arts improves mental health, self-esteem, and other obstacles that veterans face from the after-effects of military service, while also learning a new skill and hobby.youth and family programs:the goals of brushwood center's youth and family programs are to provide participants from low income communities with nature-inspired environmental educational programs about local woodlands and to experience the many health benefits of nature. Brushwood center employs customized, bilingual programs to reach 600 youth in communities in the northern chicago region.
$36,579 spent$2,409 earned by the program2% of program spendingOther programs include but are not limited to, nature programs, book discussions and environmental education programs.
$1,447,073 spent$12,895 earned by the program91% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2026 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,596,585.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $3.2M to $5.1M (+58%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 7% · 2022 2% · 2024 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 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
Catherine Game
Executive director
Board chair
Gail Sturm
Chair
As listed on its FY2026 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $107k → $757k.
10 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 funders by total. 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
BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% 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 BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 71% · 2019 53% · 2020 34% · 2021 52% · 2022 74% · 2023 22% — diversifying over time.
“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
38% of BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
65% of BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.9M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 23 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 23 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2026
Organizations like BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
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 BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS: 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 BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS?
- BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS (Illinois) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,256,601 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,204,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $5,256,601 in grants to BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $2,204,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRUSHWOOD CENTER AT RYERSON WOODS 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 Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2018–2026), and the filings of 53 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