Illinois · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF THE PARKS
FRIENDS OF THE PARKS (Illinois) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,292,542 to it, the largest being JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ($332,100). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $565k
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $502k
What Friends of the Parks does
Mission
Friends of the Parks inspires, equips, and mobilizes a diverse chicago to ensure an equitable park system for a healthy chicago.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Neighborhood parks program- partners with and educates park advisory councils, community organizations, and citizens to improve neighborhood parks, playgrounds and open spaces.
$57,523 spent17% of program spendingResearch planning and policy program - serves to protect chicago's neighborhood parks, preserves, and lakefront by conducting research and analyzing the current state of the parks in order to advocate for improved policies and procedures that will lead to direct improvement of chicago parks.
$118,067 spent36% of program spendingEnvironmental education program - provides environmental education to elementary and high school students, as well as service opportunities for students.
$112,284 spent34% of program spendingStewardship and other program expenses
$18,853 spent6% of program spendingEvents
$23,578 spent7% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $330,305.
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 2021 to 2022, from $999k to $1.3M (+32%).
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 3% · 2019 3% · 2020 2% · 2021 14% · 2022 9% · 2023 12% · 2024 5% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of FRIENDS OF THE PARKS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (18% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Bronwyn Nichols Lodato
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 21 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $131k → $243k.
14 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 FRIENDS OF THE PARKS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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
FRIENDS OF THE PARKS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
40% 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 FRIENDS OF THE PARKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 34% · 2019 31% · 2020 31% · 2021 16% · 2022 32% · 2023 27% — 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
31% of FRIENDS OF THE PARKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
73% of FRIENDS OF THE PARKS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $912k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
FRIENDS OF THE PARKS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,010 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,010 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FRIENDS OF THE PARKS
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
55% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 FRIENDS OF THE PARKS: 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 FRIENDS OF THE PARKS?
- FRIENDS OF THE PARKS (Illinois) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,292,542 to it, the largest being JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ($332,100). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF THE PARKS have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $2,292,542 in grants to FRIENDS OF THE PARKS, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF THE PARKS?
- JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO is the largest funder on record, with $332,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF THE PARKS 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 Friends of the Parks →
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 60 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing