Illinois · Nonprofit
CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE
CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE (Illinois) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $434,033,113 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($334,156,150). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $434M
- Net assets
- $85M
What Center for Technology and Civic Life does
Mission
The center's mission is to increase civic participation by modernizing engagement between local government and the people they serve. The center accomplishes this by (1) written and multimedia materials, (2) providing expert consulting services to governmental agencies, and (3) in-person training seminars for local governemnt agencies.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The center educates the public about government and democracy in the united states, focusing particularly on local government. The center does this by aggregating and disseminating detailed information about government, candidates for office, elected officials, and voting in the united states in easily accessible "datasets". These datasets include information that help the general public find basic information, including what is on their ballot and who represents them. These datasets are available to the public.
$16,679,967 spentof which $12,630,125 as grants$950,937 earned by the program81% of program spendingThe center's government services program educates government agencies about the skills, strategies, and tools to engage their citizens. This is accomplished through (1) written and multimedia materials, (2) providing expert consulting services to government agencies, and (3) in-person training seminars for local government agencies.
$2,202,991 spentof which $600,000 as grants$8,000 earned by the program11% of program spendingEducate election officials on how to identify funding gaps in their departments and how to find opportunities to close the gap through leadership development and community building.
$1,637,451 spent8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $20,520,409.
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.
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 $33M to $81M (+148%).
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.
92% of CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
Tiana Epps-Johnson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $623k → $15M.
20 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 92% 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 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 77% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 50% · 2019 61% · 2020 93% · 2021 32% · 2022 13% · 2023 27% — 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
35% of CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
92% of CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE'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 $33M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $401M 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.
Against its field
CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 144 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 144 public benefit nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE: 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 TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE?
- CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE (Illinois) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $434,033,113 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($334,156,150). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $434,033,113 in grants to CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $334,156,150 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CIVIC LIFE 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 56 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