Illinois · Nonprofit
JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION
JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,470,371 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($1,645,400). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What John Howard Association does
Mission
Organizaton mission the John Howard Association of illinois provides public oversight of the states prisons, jails, and juvenile correctional facilities and addresses inmate needs and concerns as it has for over a century. The association promotes fair, humane, and effective sentencing and correctional policies that will lessen the burden on the taxpayers and increase safety in our communities. The association provides illinois citizens and decision-makers with facts and analysis needed to improve state and local criminal and juvenile justice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Prison monitoring project - ils prison system incarcerates approximately 29,000 individuals. Jha provides critical independent citizen correctional oversight of its prisons through on-site prison visits, collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, interviews and surveys of prisoners and corrections staff and administrators to gather insight from those who live and work in il prisons.
$465,449 spent59% of program spendingJuvenile justice program jha provides correctional oversight of ils dept of juvenile justice faciltiies and programs. Jha goes into every juvenile facility to observe, ask questions, and talk to youth and staff inside the institutions in order to assess whether youth needs are being met in terms of treatment, education, programming, counseling, and conditions inside the il youth centers.
$149,890 spent19% of program spendingPrison response unit - the illinois administrative code designates jha as the only recipient of privileged mail from the prison system that is not a state agency or an individuals legal representative. This unique role allows people who are incarcerated to write to jha regarding their true concerns and issues they are experiencing without having fear of retaliation or negative consequences. Jha also conducts surveys of those incarcerated in il prisons. Jha maintains a database of the data and information collected, which allows the organization to track trends to help in proposing policy solutions to problems as they emerge.
$165,668 spent21% of program spendingProgram service expenses 7,890, grants and allocations 0, revenue 0 community engagement and other misc programs - in 2024, jha laucnhed a pilot commuinity engagement program, for the purpose of creating community awareness of the organization and strengthening its connections with those who are not incarcerated in the il prison system.
$7,890 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $788,897.
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 $968k to $1.9M (+92%).
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.
83% of JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Jennifer Vollen-Katz
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $408k → $723k.
10 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 71% · 2019 60% · 2020 37% · 2021 33% · 2022 34% · 2023 35% — 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
57% of JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
71% of JOHN HOWARD 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. $459k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like JOHN HOWARD 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.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 JOHN HOWARD 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 JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION?
- JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION (Illinois) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,470,371 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($1,645,400). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $4,470,371 in grants to JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of JOHN HOWARD ASSOCIATION?
- JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,645,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like JOHN HOWARD 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.
Play a game about who funds John Howard Association →
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 35 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