Illinois · Nonprofit
JOIN HANDS ESL
JOIN HANDS ESL (Illinois) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $556,662 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($144,700). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $94k
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $557k
- Net assets
- $44k
What Join Hands Esl does
Mission
Serving underprivileged children and families in east st. Louis, illinois
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education Program: This program provides education advocacy services for all children and teens in the Dream Path and when possible scholarships to attend private school through the Alternative Education Program. There are currently 11 children in private education at schools including Sr. Thea Bowman Catholic School in East St. Louis, Althoff High School in Belleville, and Unity Lutheran School in East St. Louis.
$1,827 spent2% of program spendingThe Family Mentoring Program: This program focuses on relationships, providing a pathway out of poverty for families through support, mentoring programs and education advocacy. Mentors and staff journey with children and families helping them navigate the many barriers to academic success that exist for children growing up in intergenerational poverty. It includes family mentoring, Teen Mentoring, and Education Advocacy.
$15,820 spent21% of program spendingYouth Programming: Through this program, Join Hands builds relationships, increases self esteem, and broadens the horizons of children 8-12 in two public housing projects in East St. Louis. Through the Girls Clubs and Boys Clubs and other youth classes and programs, we provide recreational, educational, and athletic opportunities to approximately 80 children, with a current volunteer to child ratio of 1:3 for activities and outings. This program helps to encourage young people to stay on the right track, do the right thing and focus on education. Volunteers act as role models and big brothers and big sisters, reflecting the beauty and worth of each child.
$9,469 spent12% of program spendingThe Ubuntu Center for Peace: The Ubuntu Center is a place of peace, love, and hospitality. The center provides morning coffee and food to those in need. As volunteer power allows, the center offers mornings of reflection, yoga and meditation, and hopes in the near future to support efforts toward justice with our Ubuntu Movement. The Center has a peace chapel that is open to whoever has a need for some quiet space. The Ubuntu Center is an oasis in the midst of an often violent area. It is now home to all Join Hands programs, a resource for our families and children, and those in the neighborhood, as well as home to the programs administrative offices.
$30,230 spent40% of program spendingTeen Mentoring Program:Our Dream Path Teen Mentoring Program journeys with teenagers from our Family Mentoring fanilies, Teens who have aged out of our Girls, and Boys Clubs, and teen workers from Griffin Center After School Program in the local housing projects, helping them navigate the many, many barriers that exist to academic success for children growing up in intergenerational poverty.We provide
$17,796 spent23% of program spendingprogramming, individual mentoring and group activities to teenagers, providing a pathway to and through college graduation.
$1,014 spent1% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $76,156.
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 2018 to 2019, from $94k to $338k (+261%).
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: 2021 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of JOIN HANDS ESL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $15k → $107k.
11 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 68% 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 JOIN HANDS ESL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 26 of 27 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
JOIN HANDS ESL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
81% 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 JOIN HANDS ESL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 56% · 2019 34% · 2020 32% · 2021 38% · 2022 37% · 2023 32% — 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
21% of JOIN HANDS ESL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
68% of JOIN HANDS ESL'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 $176k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $380k 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
JOIN HANDS ESL's revenue fell 70% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,200 youth development nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like JOIN HANDS ESL
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
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 JOIN HANDS ESL: 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 JOIN HANDS ESL?
- JOIN HANDS ESL (Illinois) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $556,662 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($144,700). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does JOIN HANDS ESL have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $556,662 in grants to JOIN HANDS ESL, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of JOIN HANDS ESL?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $144,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like JOIN HANDS ESL 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 Join Hands Esl →
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 27 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