Illinois · Nonprofit
COMMUNITIES UNITED
COMMUNITIES UNITED (Illinois) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,634,270 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($4,754,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $9.6M
What Communities United does
Mission
Communities United is an intergenerational community organization that engages community members in efforts to preserve affordable housing, improve the quality of education, increase access to affordable health care, and increase positive investment in young people.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The healing through justice initiative is a project focused on developing youth leadership to advance community-led strategies and health partnerships to support youth mental health, healing and systems change.
$1,486,574 spentof which $352,500 as grants52% of program spendingVoyce (voices of youth in chicago education) is a citywide youth organizing collaboration. Voyce defines its efforts as student-led, based on the core belief that the recipients of public education, the students themselves, need to be at the forefront of efforts to improve the quality of public education. This program also includes parent leadership and education efforts.
$746,385 spent26% of program spendingThe goal of the organization's affordable housing project is to engage community stakeholders in developing effective strategies to preserve affordable housing in chicago.
$305,782 spent11% of program spendingBikes n' roses is a youth-led bicycle cooperative that works to promote youth leadership, entrepreneurship, bike safety, and bike advocacy. Communities United also has a welding and wood-working component to its youth development.
$298,054 spent$5,042 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,836,795.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $2.7M to $10M (+283%).
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: 2019 0% · 2020 8% · 2021 8% · 2022 5% · 2023 25% · 2024 8% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of COMMUNITIES UNITED’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $719k → $3.0M.
10 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 COMMUNITIES UNITED’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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
COMMUNITIES UNITED has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
32% 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 COMMUNITIES UNITED.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 40% · 2019 43% · 2020 20% · 2021 21% · 2022 36% · 2023 42% — 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
45% of COMMUNITIES UNITED's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
COMMUNITIES UNITED draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
COMMUNITIES UNITED holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding COMMUNITIES UNITED receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $449k on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$449k
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 COMMUNITIES UNITED
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
50%
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 COMMUNITIES UNITED: 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 COMMUNITIES UNITED?
- COMMUNITIES UNITED (Illinois) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,634,270 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($4,754,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COMMUNITIES UNITED have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $17,634,270 in grants to COMMUNITIES UNITED, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNITIES UNITED?
- WK Kellogg Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $4,754,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNITIES UNITED 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 46 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