Illinois · Nonprofit
ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER
ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $222,278 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($104,718). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $847k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $222k
- Net assets
- $791k
What Ecology Action Center does
Mission
Environmental awareness and education
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Solid waste: the Ecology Action Center is the solid waste agency for mclean county, the city of bloomington, and the town of normal, and receives funding through the mclean county solid waste fund. The eac helps residents and businesses reduce waste, increase recycling, and properly dispose of hazardous waste through numerous educational and outreach programs. Our recycle coach app helps people properly dispose of waste, sends alerts about upcoming special collections, and can sync to residents' curbside collections to remind them when to put their bins out. The app has over 10,000 users and 419,000+ interactions annually. Eac staff present recycling programs to all the 4th grade classrooms in the community, reaching around 1,200 youth a year. We provide educational workshops on backyard composting, and a community composting program with 334 subscribers.
$136,574 spentof which $6,754 as grants$226,707 earned by the program25% of program spendingBncare: in the late summer of 2024, the Ecology Action Center started collecting data for the bloomington-normal community air research and education (bncare) program, funded by a u.s. Epa grant and in partnership with illinois state university. Through fy 2025, three stationary monitors were placed throughout the bloomington-normal area, with a focus on environmental justice areas. These monitors measure air pollutants including particulate matter, ozone, and volatile organic compounds, with the goal of finding out if the region's ozone levels are remaining within epa compliance. Along with data collection, the bncare program also focuses on public outreach. A website, bncare.org, was launched with the program, and outreach has been done throughout the community, reaching 321 people. This includes outreach at schools, farmers markets, museums, and fairs. Social media campaigns have been done during local air quality events, such as the late spring dust storm and early june wildfire smoke. The program was also presented at professional showcases, such as the isu history symposium. The program collected and shared 10 months of air quality data in fiscal year 2025.
$115,139 spentof which $16,504 as grants$90,162 earned by the program21% of program spendingTree corps: the tree corps program plants thousands of trees every year in bloomington, normal, and mclean county to improve air quality, increase native habitat, sequester carbon, and improve climate resilience. Eac partners with local institutions to identify planting locations and engages volunteers to plant the trees. This year eac planted 5393 trees, engaging 188 volunteers. Planting sites included interstate exchanges, the water reclamation district, and property owned by mclean county parks; requiring measuring and flagging over 37 acres. Eac promoted the importance of trees and tree corps programs at 10 community events. 17 families participated in the west bloomington free tree/community canopy free tree program, resulting in the planting of 20 high quality native sapling trees in high-need areas of the community.
$111,330 spent$211,303 earned by the program21% of program spendingAll other programs
$174,915 spentof which $9,940 as grants33% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $537,958.
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.
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 $380k to $743k (+95%).
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: 2017 2% · 2018 2% · 2024 26% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
36% of ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Michael Brown
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $5k → $111k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER’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
ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
70% 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 ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 94% — 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.
Where its funders are
70% of ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER'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 $66k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 2 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $156k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $938k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$938k
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 ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER: 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 ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER?
- ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $222,278 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($104,718). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $222,278 in grants to ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER?
- CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $104,718 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 5 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