Illinois · Nonprofit
FOOD WORKS
FOOD WORKS (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $999,788 to it, the largest being THE BUILDERS INITIATIVE INC ($684,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
FOOD WORKS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,749 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,749 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- UNFI Foundationshared fundersportfolio match
- Lane Community Health Councillocal
- Fair Food Network Incportfolio match
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.
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: 2022 94% · 2023 95% · 2024 92% · 2025 79%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of FOOD WORKS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $19k → $374k.
From the IRS filings of FOOD WORKS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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
FOOD WORKS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
31% 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 WORKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 67% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 75% · 2022 87% · 2023 69% — 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
80% of FOOD WORKS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 7 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- UNFI Foundationshared fundersportfolio matchRI · backs 37 organizations that share your funders · its grantees resemble your mission
- Lane Community Health CouncillocalOR · funds 109 organizations near you
- Fair Food Network Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Carolina Farm Stewardship Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pennsylvania Certified Organicportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Oregon Farmers Markets Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Feeding Pennsylvaniaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Diabetes Prevention and Aid Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Lane Arts CouncillocalOR · funds 43 organizations near you
- Ecology Centerportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- United Way of Lane CountylocalOR · funds 104 organizations near you
- Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding FOOD WORKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.3M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.3M
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 FOOD WORKS
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 FOOD WORKS: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds FOOD WORKS?
- FOOD WORKS (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $999,788 to it, the largest being THE BUILDERS INITIATIVE INC ($684,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOOD WORKS have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $999,788 in grants to FOOD WORKS, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOOD WORKS?
- THE BUILDERS INITIATIVE INC is the largest funder on record, with $684,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOOD WORKS 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 7funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing