Illinois · Nonprofit
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc (Illinois) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,960,164 to it, the largest being THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION ($1,912,627). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $6.0M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc does
Mission
CDEL has a dual mission, which has remained constant since the organization was founded in 1984: 1. To provide free legal services to low-income seniors and persons with disabilities who reside in Chicago and suburban Cook County, Illinois.2. To foster the spirit of pro bono service throughout the Chicago and Cook County legal communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Organization provides pro bono legal services to low-income elderly and people with disabilities throughout Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. The Chicagoland based legal community provided over $2,300,000 in donated legal services which supplemented out of pocket program costs. The Organization facilitates the legal community by providing attorneys and paralegals the opportunity to assist CDEL and its clients. CDEL also provides training to attorneys that qualifies for their CLE credit.
$1,587,400 spent$13,653 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,587,400.
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 $1.7M to $2.7M (+61%).
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: 2017 4% · 2018 5% · 2019 4% · 2020 4% · 2021 17% · 2022 8% · 2023 7% · 2024 36% · 2025 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $199k → $758k.
9 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
79% 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 Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 20% · 2019 18% · 2020 20% · 2021 31% · 2022 42% · 2023 50% — 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
65% of Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
93% of Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $445k 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.
Organizations like Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc
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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc: 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 Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc?
- Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc (Illinois) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,960,164 to it, the largest being THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION ($1,912,627). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $5,960,164 in grants to Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc?
- THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,912,627 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc 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 Center for Disability & Elder Law →
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 33 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