Illinois · Nonprofit
CHANGING WORLDS
CHANGING WORLDS (Illinois) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,068,534 to it, the largest being RALLA KLEPAK PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION ($325,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $699k
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $-53719
What Changing Worlds does
Mission
Changing Worlds' mission is to foster inclusive communities through oral history, writing and arts programs that improve student learning, affirm identity and enhance cross-cultural understanding.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
In-school program: arts, cultural & literacy connections program (acl) - Changing Worlds' acl program partners classroom teachers with teaching artists and writers to explore and collaborate on projects that address "big ideas" to enhance student learning in the arts and key developmental and academic priorities based on their core curriculum. The acl program is an arts integrated program approach that focuses on grades 3-12 and is designed to address the cultural history, personal identity, and the current societal topics/issues relevant to their students.arts/performing arts and cultural connections - this program helps to expand the breadth and depth of learning opportunities in the arts for students by presenting a hands-on exploration of an artistic discipline that is not offered at the school. The approach is to build the skills and understanding of the art form for one or more teachers and their students.general music for pre-k - grade 2 - working in a teacher's classroom for up to 30 weeks, the young learners in this program learn the vocabulary of music and practice key developmental skills of listening and hand/eye coordination. Students sing and creatively move during…
$131,420 spent$71,520 earned by the program42% of program spendingAfter-school program:arts & cultural connections program (acc) - Changing Worlds' acc programs partner with grade k-12 learners in schools and community-based organizations with artists in culturally focused residencies in visual arts, digital media, dance, theater, and music. These residencies activate the stories of our participants' lives through the exploration of identity, community and culture while being taught the essential core concepts of the fine arts.
$132,699 spent$68,400 earned by the program42% of program spendingCommunity outreach initiatives:family nights - family nights enable groups of all ages to discover the unexpected connections through the celebration of family history, culture and heritage. Incorporating hands-on experiences and storytelling, each family will create a collaborative project that is meaningful to them. Examples include creating a family tree, designing a family self-portrait, engaging in a community dance workshop or participating in painting a mural. Participants in family nights will engage in hands-on activities and discover unexpected connections and commonalities with each other.traveling art exhibits - Changing Worlds' traveling exhibits follow the journeys of chicago immigrants and refugee families through their stories of relocation, change, and adaptation to our city. There are two options for schools, community centers, and organizers of events/workshops to consider: 1) family stories and 2) immigrant experience through the eyes of teens.the art of dei living program for adult in working environments. Changing Worlds uses multi-disciplinary art forms to engage employees including storytelling, poetry, music, and drawing. To engage in a meaningful way,…
$49,803 spent$12,975 earned by the program16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $313,922.
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 $353k to $90k (−75%).
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 1% · 2018 6% · 2019 5% · 2020 14% · 2021 12% · 2022 8% · 2023 25% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
71% of CHANGING WORLDS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $164k → $468k.
9 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 CHANGING WORLDS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
CHANGING WORLDS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
33% 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 CHANGING WORLDS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 38% · 2019 19% · 2020 29% · 2021 28% · 2022 15% · 2023 32% — 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
50% of CHANGING WORLDS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
80% of CHANGING WORLDS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $599k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
CHANGING WORLDS's funding base is broadening — from 9 funders to 19 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,798 civil rights nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding CHANGING WORLDS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $135k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$135k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CHANGING WORLDS
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
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
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 CHANGING WORLDS: 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 CHANGING WORLDS?
- CHANGING WORLDS (Illinois) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,068,534 to it, the largest being RALLA KLEPAK PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION ($325,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHANGING WORLDS have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $3,068,534 in grants to CHANGING WORLDS, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHANGING WORLDS?
- RALLA KLEPAK PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $325,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHANGING WORLDS 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 Changing Worlds →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 41 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