Illinois · Nonprofit
CHANGE ILLINOIS
CHANGE ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,050,905 to it, the largest being THE JOYCE FOUNDATION ($850,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2026
- $355k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $555k
What Change Illinois does
Mission
Change Illinois is dedicated to activities that promote honest and effective government, open elections, and high levels of voter participation in illinois.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Programs
Policy: research of policy solutions, best practices elsewhere and development of policy proposals to challenges with government and our democratic system.
$118,383 spent30% of program spendingCommunications: discussions and meetings with organizations, groups, individuals, employers, or government bodies.
$149,990 spent38% of program spendingAdvocacy: education, discussions and persuasion that could affect some aspect of civic society, whether it is directed at the public, other organizations and groups, individuals, employers, or the government bodies short of asking for a specific outcome on a specifice piece of legislation.
$130,987 spent33% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $399,360.
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 2020 to 2021, from $773k to $1.3M (+72%).
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.
95% of CHANGE ILLINOIS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 10 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
Ryan Tolley
Executive director
As listed on its FY2026 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $5k → $455k.
6 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 CHANGE ILLINOIS’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
CHANGE ILLINOIS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
44% 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 CHANGE ILLINOIS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 41% · 2020 42% · 2021 25% · 2022 28% · 2023 44% — 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 CHANGE ILLINOIS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
98% of CHANGE ILLINOIS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
CHANGE ILLINOIS is better cushioned than half of the 14 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14 civil rights nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2026
Organizations like CHANGE ILLINOIS
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
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Change Illinois Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHANGE ILLINOIS: 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 CHANGE ILLINOIS?
- CHANGE ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,050,905 to it, the largest being THE JOYCE FOUNDATION ($850,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHANGE ILLINOIS have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $3,050,905 in grants to CHANGE ILLINOIS, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHANGE ILLINOIS?
- THE JOYCE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $850,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHANGE ILLINOIS 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 Change Illinois →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 21 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