Illinois · Nonprofit
LETTERS CHARITY
LETTERS CHARITY (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $189,595 to it, the largest being The Hibel Family Foundation ($47,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $690k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $190k
- Net assets
- $127k
What Letters Charity does
Mission
Letters Charity is a nonprofit organization on a mission to use art as a conduit to transform passive compassion into immediate assistance through the distribution of money given, without expectation or judgement, directly to families suffering poverty.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Letters to santa - we surprised seventeen families living in poverty in chicago. Each family received new clothing, new toys, food, household essentials, a new computer for every child and a new tablet for every adult plus an unconditional cash grant to each family.
$300,349 spentof which $248,019 as grants51% of program spendingEmergency relief program - the emergency relief program transforms compassion into immediate action during emergencies that disproportionately impact vulnerable communities. Our approach is simple: identify urgent needs in underserved communities during crisis situations, then respond with direct, unconditional support that helps families maintain their dignitiy and stability. No red tape, no waiting periods - just immediate help when it matters most. 20 families were served by this program this year.
$293,453 spentof which $255,212 as grants49% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $593,802.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $215k to $159k (−26%).
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: 2020 12% · 2021 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of LETTERS CHARITY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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
Holly Lewis
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $10k → $19k.
7 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 LETTERS CHARITY’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
LETTERS CHARITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
46% 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 LETTERS CHARITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 91% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 59% — 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
25% of LETTERS CHARITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
57% of LETTERS CHARITY's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $87k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
LETTERS CHARITY's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,062 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like LETTERS CHARITY
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LETTERS CHARITY: 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 LETTERS CHARITY?
- LETTERS CHARITY (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $189,595 to it, the largest being The Hibel Family Foundation ($47,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LETTERS CHARITY have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $189,595 in grants to LETTERS CHARITY, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LETTERS CHARITY?
- The Hibel Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $47,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LETTERS CHARITY 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 2019–2025), and the filings of 16 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