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Illinois · Nonprofit

CAT GUARDIANS

CAT GUARDIANS (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,436 to it, the largest being THE DUPAGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($10,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$141k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$17k
Net assets
$352k
3/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 9%
01What it does

What Cat Guardians does

Mission

Cat Guardians, Inc. is a nonprofit organization designed to help with the feline overpopulation and homelessness problem in Du Page County, Illinois. Cat Guardians provides proper medical, and sustenance needs and loving care to these stray and unwanted cats. Each cat is spayed/neutered before adoptions to prevent additional unwanted animals. Cats not adopted or deemed unadoptable are welcome to live out their lives in our no-kill, caring shelter.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Cat Guardians is a cageless shelter for cats in Lombard, IL. For 37 years, the shelter has matched homeless and abandoned cats with families and provided a permanent home for cats deemed "unadoptable" due to personality or age. The shelter is funded entirely by generous donors and adoption fees and staffed entirely by volunteers.

    $102,683 spent$140,521 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $102,683.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($131k) Expenses 100 ($88k) Net assets 100 ($57k)2021 Revenue 95 ($124k) Expenses 100 ($88k) Net assets 164 ($93k)2022 Revenue 96 ($127k) Expenses 105 ($93k) Net assets 223 ($127k)2023 Revenue 93 ($122k) Expenses 131 ($115k) Net assets 235 ($134k)2024 Revenue 144 ($189k) Expenses 119 ($105k) Net assets 382 ($218k)2025 Revenue 107 ($141k) Expenses 125 ($110k) Net assets 617 ($352k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (107)Expenses (125)Net assets (617)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 2023 to 2024, from $234k to $318k (+36%).

$179k
$218k
$227k
$234k
$318k
$352k
202020212022202320242025
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 8% · 2021 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

83% of CAT GUARDIANS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (86% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 7,042 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$43k
’20
$36k
’21
$34k
’22
$7k
’23
$84k
’24
$30k
’25
26
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.

202020212022202320242025
Listed333334
Joined·+0+1+0+0+3
No longer listed·01002
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $100 → $11k.

2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 76% 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 CAT GUARDIANS’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

CAT GUARDIANS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

76% 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 CAT GUARDIANS.

57%
largest funder
88%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 71% · 2021 80% · 2022 49% · 2023 93% — 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.

Where its funders are

76% of CAT GUARDIANS'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 $4k that is directly attributable, 52% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 4 states.

ID
IL
CA
NC

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

’17
’20
’21
’22
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13k 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

CAT GUARDIANS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,693 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin22% · above the median
Months of reserve25.5mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like CAT GUARDIANS

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

93% of spending goes to programs.

Program 93%Management 4%Fundraising 2%

Governance

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

Public support

100%

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 CAT GUARDIANS: 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 CAT GUARDIANS?
CAT GUARDIANS (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,436 to it, the largest being THE DUPAGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($10,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does CAT GUARDIANS have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $17,436 in grants to CAT GUARDIANS, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CAT GUARDIANS?
THE DUPAGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CAT GUARDIANS 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 Cat Guardians →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), 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