Illinois · Nonprofit
COMMON PANTRY
COMMON PANTRY (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,985,095 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($331,527). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $4.2M
What Common Pantry does
Mission
Common Pantry meets the emergency needs of our local community by providing healthy food, kinship and support to help overcome poverty-related challenges.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Nutrition education- Common Pantry launched our education program in summer 2024 to empower guests to make their own nutritional choices through sustainable, structured nutrition practices to help reduce chronic diseases and enhance wellbeing through food. The pantry hosted monthly cooking classes, meal sampling with recipes and prepared meals for senior home delivery clients. Nearly 730 individuals benefitted from our nutrition programs in 2024.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Emergency food programs: we provide emergency food and groceries to individual adults and families who qualify for assistance. Unhoused guests are offered ready-to-eat foods and prepared meals to support nutritional needs. In 2024, distributed monthly emergency groceries on average to over 1,000 households per month (including a total of 1,521 home deliveries) and provided over 6000 hot meals to our guests. Weekly hot lunch curated by our registered dietitan is prepared by a dozen volunteers for 100 guests is also provided on wednesdays 12-1pm. Grocery distribution hours are tuesdays 4-6pm; wednesdays 1-4pm & 6-8pm; thursdays 1-4pm. We offer client choice for all programs, including online ordering for pick up on tuesdays.
$1,713,026 spentof which $1,393,927 as grants79% of program spendingClient services program - common community: helps people and families address the challenges that result from economic instability.we offer walk-in services from 11:30 a.m. To 4 p.m. On wednesdays and our social service office is also open on thursdays from 12 p.m. To 4 p.m. Or by appointment. Our social services program manager and a team of dedicated volunteers (including a bilingual spanish volunteer) to help guests navigate available resources in areas of medical/mental health referrals, housing support, government programs and employment opportunities. We have the potential to transform the lives of clients by offering them the help they need to become self-sufficient. The program had 889 social service interations, 1668 touchpoints through special programs and partner tablings.
$187,737 spentof which $28,212 as grants9% of program spendingCommunity rescue hub program- a Common Pantry driver safely rescues ready to eat food from retailers and delivers it to 3 partners for their own pantry programs. Launched in september 2023, the program runs 4 days a week and enables thousands of lbs of healthy food to be distrubuted to households not coming to Common Pantry. In total during 2024, we rescued 379,718lbs of food from 10 retailers and redistributed 178,595lbs to our three partner pantries.
$128,866 spent6% of program spendingNutrition education- Common Pantry launched our education program in summer 2024 to empower guests to make their own nutritional choices through sustainable, structured nutrition practices to help reduce chronic diseases and enhance wellbeing through food. The pantry hosted monthly cooking classes, meal sampling with recipes and prepared meals for senior home delivery clients. Nearly 730 individuals benefitted from our nutrition programs in 2024.
$128,865 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,158,494.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $868k to $2.4M (+181%).
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: 2021 23% · 2022 16% · 2023 11% · 2024 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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
Margaret O'Connor
Executive director
Board chair
Charles Herrig
Board president
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $55k → $465k.
15 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 PANTRY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 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 PANTRY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
79% 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 PANTRY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 65% · 2019 40% · 2020 18% · 2021 16% · 2022 22% · 2023 38% — 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
46% of COMMON PANTRY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
57% of COMMON PANTRY'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 $851k that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Organizations like COMMON PANTRY
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Northcenter Building LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMMON PANTRY: 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 COMMON PANTRY?
- COMMON PANTRY (Illinois) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,985,095 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($331,527). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COMMON PANTRY have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $1,985,095 in grants to COMMON PANTRY, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMON PANTRY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $331,527 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMON PANTRY 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 Pantry →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 59 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing