Illinois · Nonprofit
Children First Foundation
Children First Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,294 to it, the largest being ELK FOUNDATION INC ($2,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $759k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $2k
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Children First Foundation does
Mission
Our mission is to help children and caregivers effectively adapt to divorce, separation, custodial conflict, and visitation exchange issues by creating services and products that address these issues.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
PARENTING EDUCATION CURRICULUM is a video/DVD-based curriculum targeting divorcing or separating parents to educate them on how to best help their children cope with the effects of family changes and conflict. Organizations can become providers of our parenting education course by purchasing a license. There are currently 8 licensed providers. The agency website offers the class on the internet for parents needing to complete the class and not attending class in the classroom. An internet class and site were created for College of Lake County (one of our licensees). In 2023 we revised our parenting education/course video, and it is now offered in Spanish and English versions.
$1,627 spent$95,367 earned by the program0% of program spendingPARENTING EDUCATION - Four-hour Children First classes are offered in Madison County on Mondays and Tuesdays (6-8pm) and in St. Clair County on Wednesdays and Thursdays (6-8pm). Each location offers a Friday class one time per month from 9:00am - 1:00pm. This scheduling allows morning options to participants. In Madison County 39 parents attended the class and, in St. Clair County, 47 parents attended. The four-hour internet class was completed by 2,005 individuals in St. Clair and Madison Counties and 1,467 in Lake County.
$18,441 spent$122,955 earned by the program3% of program spendingSUPERVISED & OVERNIGHT PARENTING TIME PROGRAMS provide designated parking and separate entrances. Both programs ensure no contact occurs between parents during the exchange. Overnight parenting is designed to supervise the transfer of children between divorced or separated parents. This program targets high-conflict couples with a history of problems at the time of child transfer. During the Supervised Parenting Time the receiving parent is not allowed to leave the center with the child. The visit takes place on site. All families are court-ordered into these programs. The Family Center in St. Clair County served families with 764 scheduled exchanges and 762 supervised parenting times. The Madison County Kids Corner served families with 463 scheduled exchanges and 1,471 supervised parenting times.
$522,307 spent96% of program spendingKid and Teen First Divorce Treatment Program.See Sch. O
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $542,375.
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 $726k to $1.1M (+56%).
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 66% · 2018 66% · 2019 65% · 2020 62% · 2021 57% · 2022 65% · 2023 67% · 2024 69%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
69% of Children First Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Chief executive
Julie Chambers
Exec. director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $5 → $16.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 Children First Foundation’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
Children First Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 87% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 95% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
Children First Foundation draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 2 states in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Children First Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Children First Foundation
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 Children First Foundation: 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 Children First Foundation?
- Children First Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,294 to it, the largest being ELK FOUNDATION INC ($2,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Children First Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $2,294 in grants to Children First Foundation, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Children First Foundation?
- ELK FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Children First Foundation 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 Children First →
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 3 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