Illinois · Nonprofit
DIRECT WOMEN
DIRECT WOMEN (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,627,913 to it, the largest being TIDES CENTER ($1,345,878). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Direct Women does
Mission
Directwomen is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the representation of women lawyers on corporate boards. Directwomen identifies leading women lawyers from around the country who are able to provide the experience, independence, and business judgment required for board effectiveness. Through its various programs, directwomen develops and positions women attorney leaders for board service. It also serves as a resource for companies seeking qualified board candidates.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, Direct Women produced a series of webinars for women lawyers to inspire an interest in corporate board service. The organization held the board institute, its flagship program, in october. Each year, directwomen identifies a small group of leading women lawyers to participate in the board institute based on an assessment of their ability to provide the experience, independence, and business judgment required for board effectiveness. The board institute provides working sessions designed to help participants develop their value proposition and personal board-search strategies. The organization also ran networking events for the board institute alumnae to assist them with their board search. Twelve directwomen board institute alumnae were elected to thirteen board seats in 2025. Since its inception, directwomen alumnae have served on 223 corporate boards. Direct Women also hosted the 2025 sandra day o'connor board excellence award luncheon to raise awareness of the importance of board diversity and to showcase successful women lawyer-directors. Over 400 ceos, corporate directors, law firm leaders, and other supporters attended the event. Directwomen hosted its third…
$720,233 spent$278,556 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $720,233.
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 2021 to 2022, from $1.7M to $2.1M (+25%).
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 9%. 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 6 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
Shawn Taylor Kaminski
Executive director
Board chair
Lily Yan Hughes
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income fell $1.4M → $34k.
9 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 95% 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 DIRECT WOMEN’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
DIRECT WOMEN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 83% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
98% 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 DIRECT WOMEN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 99% · 2021 37% · 2022 37% · 2023 64% — 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
25% of DIRECT WOMEN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% 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
95% of DIRECT WOMEN'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 $82k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M 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.
Organizations like DIRECT WOMEN
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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DIRECT WOMEN: 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 DIRECT WOMEN?
- DIRECT WOMEN (Illinois) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,627,913 to it, the largest being TIDES CENTER ($1,345,878). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 95% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DIRECT WOMEN have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,627,913 in grants to DIRECT WOMEN, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIRECT WOMEN?
- TIDES CENTER is the largest funder on record, with $1,345,878 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIRECT WOMEN 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 Direct Women →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 17 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