Illinois · Nonprofit
Illinois Women's Forum
Illinois Women's Forum (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,620 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($81,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $473k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $84k
- Net assets
- $417k
What Illinois Women's Forum does
Mission
Advancing women's leadership and championing equality worldwide through conferences, meetings, and seminars presenting information of interest to women leaders in the chicagoland area. These activities as well as the organization's affiliation with the international women's forum allow members to build bridges that span the globe, forging personal and professional relationships within and beyond chicago by connecting with a network of over 7,000 women leaders from six continents and 33 countries.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Held numerous conferences, meetings, and seminars presenting information of interest to women leaders in the chicagoland area.
$384,777 spentof which $50,000 as grants$36,960 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $384,777.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2020 to 2021, from $319k to $445k (+39%).
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.
90% of Illinois Women's Forum’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 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
2018 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income rose $1k → $25k.
1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 Women's Forum’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 Women's Forum leans on a few funders — its largest provides 97% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 Women's Forum.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 54% · 2019 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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
97% of Illinois Women's Forum'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 $3k that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $81k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Illinois Women's Forum has grown faster than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Illinois Women's Forum
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Illinois Women's Forum: 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 Women's Forum?
- Illinois Women's Forum (Illinois) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,620 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($81,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Illinois Women's Forum have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $83,620 in grants to Illinois Women's Forum, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Illinois Women's Forum?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $81,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Illinois Women's Forum 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 2020–2025), 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing