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Illinois · Nonprofit

CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION

CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $411,733 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($73,019). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.2M
Funders on record
17
Grants received
$412k
Net assets
$9.5M
12/17 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 10%
01What it does

What Cancer Research Foundation does

Mission

The Cancer Research Foundation mission is to raise funds to fund both early-career cancer scientists and new directions in cancer science research with the goal of contributing to transformational events in the prevention, treatment and cure for cancer.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Grants to scientists at university medical centers for clinical and laboratory research on various projects

    $1,384,078 spentof which $1,200,000 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,384,078.

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 ($1.5M) Expenses 100 ($784k) Net assets 100 ($8.8M)2018 Revenue 55 ($805k) Expenses 87 ($683k) Net assets 107 ($9.4M)2019 Revenue 38 ($558k) Expenses 116 ($913k) Net assets 74 ($6.5M)2020 Revenue 75 ($1.1M) Expenses 131 ($1.0M) Net assets 75 ($6.5M)2021 Revenue 83 ($1.2M) Expenses 156 ($1.2M) Net assets 122 ($11M)2022 Revenue 74 ($1.1M) Expenses 138 ($1.1M) Net assets 124 ($11M)2023 Revenue 61 ($894k) Expenses 128 ($1.0M) Net assets 108 ($9.5M)2024 Revenue 70 ($1.0M) Expenses 135 ($1.1M) Net assets 121 ($11M)2025 Revenue 81 ($1.2M) Expenses 201 ($1.6M) Net assets 108 ($9.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (81)Expenses (201)Net assets (108)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 2020 to 2021, from $7.1M to $11M (+59%).

$9.1M
$9.7M
$6.8M
$7.1M
$11M
$11M
$10M
$11M
$10M
'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
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

16% of CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (51% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 8,632 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$670k
’17
$122k
’18
’19
’20
−$19k
’21
−$7k
’22
−$111k
’23
−$36k
’24
−$400k
’25
2.3
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

Mr M Johnson

CEO

Board chair

Mrs A Nikitas

President/chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed111111121318161919
Joined·+0+0+1+1+5+0+3+1
No longer listed·00000201
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $471 → $91k.

14 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION’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

CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

100% 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 CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION.

18%
largest funder
44%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 97% · 2020 56% · 2021 49% · 2022 58% · 2023 24% — 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

25% of CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

97% of CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION'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 $12k that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 3 states.

IL
CT
NE

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $400k arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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

CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION's revenue fell 19% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−34% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,002 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION

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

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 8%Fundraising 4%

Governance

18
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

38%

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

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Cancer Research Foundation - Chicago Chapter · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION: 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 CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION?
CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $411,733 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($73,019). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $411,733 in grants to CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $73,019 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION 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 17 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