Illinois · Nonprofit
ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION
ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $954,466 to it, the largest being WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER ($893,131). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $954k
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Illinois Restaurant Association does
Mission
Founded in 1914, the Illinois Restaurant Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, protecting, educating and improving the restaurant industry in illinois.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The association partners with the cook county small business source to provide no-cost, one-on-one business advising services. Through this business advising program, experienced advisors work hand-in-hand with local small business owners to provide ongoing coaching and support to address business needs.
Restaurant seminars and member meetings are provided to educate and train restauranteurs, primarily in the areas of sanitation and alcohol awareness throughout illinois.
Government affairs:the association communicates with legislators on a state and local level with respect to legislation or proposed legislation of direct interest to its members.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense.
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.
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 $4.1M to $5.6M (+35%).
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: 2019 2% · 2020 6% · 2021 28% · 2022 8% · 2023 17% · 2024 17% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
Sam Toia
President & CEO
Board chair
Scott Weiner
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $20k → $307k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $176k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest National Restaurant Association). These are real filings, and they are not money ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION raised.
From the IRS filings of ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION’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 RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 94% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
96% 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 RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 50% · 2020 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 98% — 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.
Where its funders are
94% of ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION'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.
Organizations like ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION
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.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Ira Educational Foundation · exempt
- Illinois Restauranteurs PAC · exempt
- Chicago Gourmet LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: 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 RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION?
- ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $954,466 to it, the largest being WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER ($893,131). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $954,466 in grants to ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION?
- WOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER is the largest funder on record, with $893,131 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 5 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