Illinois · Nonprofit
Just Cause Create Joy
Just Cause Create Joy (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $201,526 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($188,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $145k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $202k
- Net assets
- $103k
What Just Cause Create Joy does
Mission
To create joy through small acts of kindness where each small act of kindness will be a charitable donation to children, elderly in nursing homes and charitable
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Comfort and Joy Program - 380 underprivileged childrenreceived large bags of gifts for the holiday. They received clothing, undergarments, books and toys.
$34,656 spentof which $34,656 as grants67% of program spendingGolden Guys and Gals Program - 396 low income nursing home gift bags with blanket, Chapstick, stuffed animal, snacks, hand sanitizer, lotion, socks and hairbrush
$11,112 spentof which $11,112 as grants22% of program spendingStock the Animal Shelters - 2,050 animals benefited fromtreats, bowls, food, toys, bathing products, blankets, leashes, collars, crates, cleaning products at 3 animal shelters
$5,585 spentof which $5,585 as grants11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $51,353.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2023 to 2024, from $62k to $103k (+66%).
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.
100% of Just Cause Create Joy’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Vanessa Mussatto
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $25k → $55k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 Just Cause Create Joy’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
Just Cause Create Joy 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
94% 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 Just Cause Create Joy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 91% — 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.
Where its funders are
94% of Just Cause Create Joy'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 $13k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Illinois funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $189k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Just Cause Create Joy has grown faster than three-quarters of the 7,117 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,117 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Just Cause Create Joy
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.
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Just Cause Create Joy: 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 Just Cause Create Joy?
- Just Cause Create Joy (Illinois) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $201,526 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($188,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Just Cause Create Joy have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $201,526 in grants to Just Cause Create Joy, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Just Cause Create Joy?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $188,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Just Cause Create Joy 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 Just Cause Create Joy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2022–2024), and the filings of 3 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