Illinois · Nonprofit
ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT
ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT (Illinois) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,214,520 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($533,800). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Illinois Prison Project does
Mission
Through advocacy, public education, and direct representation of thousands of needlessly incarcerated people, we bring hope to and fight in community with incarcerated people and their loved ones for a brighter, more humane, more just system for us all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Ipp has freed nearly 200 people from prison and currently represents hundreds of additional incarcerated people in clemency medical release and administrative advocacy. In addition to the incalculable benefits to those freed individuals and their families their release will result in a cost savings of at least $158 million to illinois taxpayers. In each case ipp provides both zealous legal representation and robust reentry planning including securing our clients housing employment if appropriate and public benefits. Ipp provides legal representation to clients serving life sentences for their third strike, people serving sentences for felony murder, incarcerated survivors of d violence, and people convicted of offenses before their 21st birthday eligible for release through illinois new youth parole law. Importantly through this work ipp is actively working to increase access to counsel and expand legal services to people who are serving excessive prison sentences. Incarcerated people have no right to an attorney after the conclusion of their direct appeal leaving the vast majority of the incarcerated population without anyone to advocate for them. In addition to providing legal…
$2,932,250 spent80% of program spendingThrough its education department led and staffed by formerly incarcerated staff members many of whom were ipp clients-ipp is actively shifting the narrative around incarcerated people especially those serving long sentences. Ipp takes a person-first approach that centers the voices of formerly incarcerated people and supports their testimonies with data. Ipp educates communities about the harm caused by excessive sentences and the need for back-end reform through training and events designed specifically to meet people where they are-including schools religious institutions workplaces and public spaces. Ipp education events center first-hand accounts calls to action and reading lists all tailored specifically for these audiences. Through this approach we seek to undo pervasive myths about who is in illinois prisons the reality of prison life and the desperate need for pathways out of incarceration. In fy25 ipp has delivered over 40 educational events reaching almost 9,000 people. Ipps work was featured in research symposiums at university chicago northwestern and heartland community college. Ipp has also trained two cohorts of new hires for the public defenders office a…
$753,111 spent20% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,685,361.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $919k to $1.1M (+20%).
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: 2023 0% · 2024 58% · 2025 52%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $7k → $306k.
9 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT’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
ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
49% 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 ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 62% · 2021 53% · 2022 63% · 2023 33% — 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
60% of ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 54% 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
59% of ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $835k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Government funding ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $750k on record.
- Department of Justice$750k
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 ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 1 related entity
- Illinois Prison Project Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT: 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 ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT?
- ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT (Illinois) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,214,520 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($533,800). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $2,214,520 in grants to ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $533,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ILLINOIS PRISON PROJECT 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 Illinois Prison Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 26 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