Illinois · Nonprofit
FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD
FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $576,625 to it, the largest being THE OVERBROOK FOUNDATION ($295,775). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $577k
- Net assets
- $496k
What Food Tank the Think Tank for Food does
Mission
Food Tank the Think Tank for Food (the organization) was founded in 2012 by danielle nierenberg, a sustainable agriculture expert, to repair our broken food system, by developing and promoting best practices in sustainable agriculture. The organization is for the seven billion people who have to eat every day. The organization offers solutions and environmentally stable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity and poverty by creating a network of connections and information for all to consume and share. The organization focuses on hope and success in agriculture and continued development of innovations that are already working on the ground, in cities, in kitchens, in fields and in laboratories. These innovations need more attention, more research and ultimatly more funding to be replicated and scaled up. The organization is for farmers, producers, policy makers, government leaders, researchers, scientists, academics, journalists and the funding and donor communities to collaborate on provi
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Please refer to schedule o - organization's mission
Please refer to schedule o - organization's mission
$925,198 spent$1,028,548 earned by the program100% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $925,198.
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 2020 to 2021, from $217k to $534k (+146%).
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.
0% of FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Bernard Pollack
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $50k → $113k.
1 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD’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
FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
28% 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 FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 63% · 2020 39% · 2021 64% · 2022 65% · 2023 75% — 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
33% of FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD has grown faster than half of the 605 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 605 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD
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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD: 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 FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD?
- FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $576,625 to it, the largest being THE OVERBROOK FOUNDATION ($295,775). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $576,625 in grants to FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD?
- THE OVERBROOK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $295,775 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOOD TANK THE THINK TANK FOR FOOD 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 Food Tank the Think Tank for Food →
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 11 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