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Illinois · Nonprofit

COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC

COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,265,948 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($900,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$593k
Funders on record
36
Grants received
$2.3M
Net assets
$321k
9/36 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 60%
01What it does

What Common Ground Foundation Inc does

Mission

To empower high school students from under-served communities to become future leaders. Our programs focus on character development, social impact, healthy living, technology, financial literacy, creative arts and global leadership.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. To empower high school students from under-served communities to become future leaders. Our programs focus on character development, social impact, healthy living, technology, financial literacy, creative arts and global leadership.

    $267,890 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $267,890.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($917k) Expenses 100 ($490k) Net assets 100 ($455k)2018 Revenue 84 ($774k) Expenses 107 ($523k) Net assets 153 ($698k)2019 Revenue 106 ($974k) Expenses 177 ($866k) Net assets 169 ($770k)2020 Revenue 93 ($856k) Expenses 136 ($665k) Net assets 211 ($961k)2021 Revenue 99 ($908k) Expenses 145 ($709k) Net assets 255 ($1.2M)2022 Revenue 106 ($971k) Expenses 193 ($946k) Net assets 269 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 98 ($899k) Expenses 295 ($1.4M) Net assets 154 ($701k)2024 Revenue 65 ($593k) Expenses 204 ($998k) Net assets 70 ($321k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (65)Expenses (204)Net assets (70)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 2022 to 2023, from $1.2M to $767k (−39%).

$479k
$734k
$845k
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.2M
$767k
$384k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2018 6% · 2019 5% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

97% of COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (83% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 6,387 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$427k
’17
$251k
’18
$109k
’19
$191k
’20
$200k
’21
$26k
’22
−$549k
’23
−$406k
’24
4.5
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.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed911111113141616
Joined·+8+3+0+3+3+4+2
No longer listed·6301222
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 7 funders, grant income fell $375k → $63k.

13 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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

COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

38% 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 COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC.

40%
largest funder
64%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 28% · 2019 43% · 2020 61% · 2021 66% · 2022 86% · 2023 24% — 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

6% of COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 25% 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

COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 11 states in all.

IL
NY
MA
NJ
CA
UT
DE
AR
MS
TX
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. $800k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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

COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC's revenue fell 35% between 2017 and 2024.

Operating margin−68% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve4.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−6% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,688 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC

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

27% of spending goes to programs.

Program 27%Management 73%Fundraising 0%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC: 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 COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC?
COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,265,948 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($900,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC have?
IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $2,265,948 in grants to COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC?
Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $900,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like COMMON GROUND FOUNDATION INC 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 Common Ground →

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 36 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