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Illinois · Nonprofit

Chicago Bible Society

Chicago Bible Society (Illinois) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $241,681 to it, the largest being Helen V Brach Foundation ($62,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$317k
Funders on record
13
Grants received
$242k
Net assets
$240k
7/13 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 12%
01What it does

What Chicago Bible Society does

Mission

The Chicago Bible Society is a ministry that distributes Bibles to prisons, hospitals, and shelters and promotes increased reading of the Bible.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Program A - Scripture Provision - Chicago Bible Society distributes Bible scripture portions, Study Guides to jails, hospitals, shelters & churches.

    $113,103 spent
    52% of program spending
  2. Program B - Scripture Encouragement - Chicago Bible Society sponsors bible study and education programs to encourage reading and understanding.

    $103,923 spent
    48% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $217,026.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($176k) Expenses 100 ($183k) Net assets 100 ($42k)2019 Revenue 111 ($196k) Expenses 105 ($193k) Net assets 109 ($45k)2020 Revenue 130 ($228k) Expenses 99 ($182k) Net assets 215 ($89k)2021 Revenue 147 ($259k) Expenses 111 ($204k) Net assets 349 ($145k)2022 Revenue 134 ($235k) Expenses 111 ($204k) Net assets 424 ($176k)2023 Revenue 173 ($304k) Expenses 139 ($254k) Net assets 544 ($226k)2024 Revenue 180 ($317k) Expenses 165 ($302k) Net assets 579 ($240k)
2018201920202021202220232024
Revenue (180)Expenses (165)Net assets (579)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 2020 to 2021, from $89k to $145k (+62%).

$42k
$45k
$89k
$145k
$176k
$226k
$240k
2018201920202021202220232024
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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

94% of Chicago Bible Society’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,778 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

−$7k
’18
$4k
’19
$46k
’20
$55k
’21
$31k
’22
$50k
’23
$14k
’24
8.9
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.

Chief executive

Kenneth Oliver

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201920202021202220232024
Listed888767
Joined·+0+1+1+0+1
No longer listed·01210
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 5 funders, grant income rose $28k → $37k.

7 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 Chicago Bible Society’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

Chicago Bible Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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

64% 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 Chicago Bible Society.

26%
largest funder
56%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 67% · 2019 67% · 2020 43% · 2021 39% · 2022 28% · 2023 55% — 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

57% of Chicago Bible Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

64% of Chicago Bible Society'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 $88k that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from Illinois funders.

IL
FL

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $154k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Chicago Bible Society is better cushioned than half of the 2,538 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · below the median
Months of reserve8.9mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,538 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like Chicago Bible Society

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

72% of spending goes to programs.

Program 72%Management 14%Fundraising 14%

Governance

8
board members
88%
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.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Chicago Bible Society: 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 Chicago Bible Society?
Chicago Bible Society (Illinois) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $241,681 to it, the largest being Helen V Brach Foundation ($62,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Chicago Bible Society have?
IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $241,681 in grants to Chicago Bible Society, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Chicago Bible Society?
Helen V Brach Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $62,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Chicago Bible Society 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 Chicago Bible Society →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 13 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