Illinois · Nonprofit
HELPING HAND CENTER
HELPING HAND CENTER (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,880,761 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($2,329,487). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $35M
What Helping Hand Center does
Mission
Transforming lives of all connected to helping hand through genuine care and education so people with intellectual/developmental disabilities are equally valued in all communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Helping hand's community living programs enhances the lives of over 80 individuals at 13 different suburban homes to provide 24-hour genuine care and support for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Each home encourages autonomy and creates program opportunities that are specific to the persons interests and choice. Helping hand offers mental health and behavioral therapy to everyone in need at the home along with medical oversite and case management.
$8,056,678 spent$9,081,254 earned by the program41% of program spendingHelping hand's school for children with intellectual/developmental disabilities and helping hand's extensive outpatient services both focus on preparing and ensuring key/core skills are enhanced. The school educates over 82 students with a dynamic team that collaborates with the student's school district and family. This team includes close to one-on-one support for each student, along with highly qualified special educators and paraprofessionals, speech therapists, behavioral therapist, and occupational therapists provide genuine education focused on returning to their home district or adult programming.
$6,083,525 spent$6,487,539 earned by the program31% of program spendingHelping hand's adult learning programing provides genuine care and education to over 400 adults. There are many focus areas for learning that are chosen by the person in the program so they can achieve their goals. Each person helping hand serves is unique and has their own interests. Helping hand provides an array of choices from job training and support to retirement and aging programs. Helping hand encourages each person to explore new skills in the arts (culinary, painting, dance, music, etc.), stem, computer science, athletics, and community advocacy to name a few. Each area incorporates independence and autonomy into the curriculum. Everyone helping hand serves has access to mental health and behavioral therapy along with case management.
$4,120,999 spent$3,677,308 earned by the program21% of program spendingPediatric outpatient clinic - the outpatient clinic serves over 200 individuals through highly skilled therapists qualified to provide occupational, speech, feeding, and behavior therapy services. Helping hand is one of the few programs that accept clients with public aid funding in addition to insurance payments.
$1,146,704 spent$892,015 earned by the program6% of program spendingEmployment services focuses on vocational skills to ready clients for the workplace. Adults in the adult learning program expressing interest in employment working with vocational specialists to identify skills needs and jobs to match the individual's interests. Helping hand focuses on competitive employment which will showcase the value each individual brings to the community.
$483,490 spent$186,799 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $19,891,396.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2023 to 2024, from $24M to $35M (+48%).
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: 2018 8% · 2019 9% · 2020 11% · 2021 14% · 2022 8% · 2023 6% · 2024 3% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
13% of HELPING HAND CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
William Stephen Dwyer
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Rich Mikitka
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $31k → $352k.
8 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $3.0M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Helping Hand Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money HELPING HAND CENTER raised.
From the IRS filings of HELPING HAND CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
HELPING HAND CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
65% 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 HELPING HAND CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 56% · 2019 34% · 2020 30% · 2021 31% · 2022 62% · 2023 69% — growing more concentrated.
“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
50% of HELPING HAND CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
61% of HELPING HAND 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 $1.9M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
HELPING HAND CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,297 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,297 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like HELPING HAND 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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Helping Hand Foundation · exempt
- Hhf Real Estate Holding Company · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HELPING HAND 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 HELPING HAND CENTER?
- HELPING HAND CENTER (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,880,761 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($2,329,487). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does HELPING HAND CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $4,880,761 in grants to HELPING HAND CENTER, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HELPING HAND CENTER?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,329,487 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HELPING HAND 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 36 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