Illinois · Nonprofit
DISABILITY LEAD
DISABILITY LEAD (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,540,876 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($1,467,750). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $557k
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $937k
What Disability Lead does
Mission
To elevate and connect a network of leaders with disabilities who shift power, transform systems, and redefine leadership.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Disability Lead builds the power of people with disabilities, developing and connecting a growing network of disabled leaders, led by and for the disability community, who shift power, transform systems, and redefine what leaderships looks like across civic, corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors. In 2025, Disability Lead marked its tenth institute, a year-long leadership development fellowship, welcoming a cohort of 19 fellows and bringing its network to more than 300 leaders. Throughout the year, members stayed connected and active through robust programming, including recurring networking and educational gatherings, a celebration during disability pride month, the disability power series, and public storytelling events. Disability Lead also convened its second annual Disability Leadership summit, which grew 25 percent over the prior year and, unlike the organization's regional programming, is open to disabled leaders nationwide. That work translated into real influence: over the course of 2025, Disability Lead facilitated 202 connections that moved members into civic appointments, professional leadership roles, competitive national fellowships, and public recognition,…
$907,465 spent$25,832 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $907,465.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.8M to $1.1M (−38%).
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 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of DISABILITY LEAD’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% 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.
Chief executive
Emily E Blum
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 13 funders, grant income rose $75k → $584k.
7 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 DISABILITY LEAD’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
DISABILITY LEAD leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
62% 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 DISABILITY LEAD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 49% · 2021 54% · 2022 58% · 2023 34% — 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 DISABILITY LEAD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
DISABILITY LEAD draws 65% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
DISABILITY LEAD's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 13 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like DISABILITY LEAD
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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
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 DISABILITY LEAD: 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 DISABILITY LEAD?
- DISABILITY LEAD (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,540,876 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($1,467,750). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DISABILITY LEAD have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $3,540,876 in grants to DISABILITY LEAD, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DISABILITY LEAD?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $1,467,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DISABILITY LEAD 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 Disability Lead →
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 29 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