Illinois · Nonprofit
LEVER FOR CHANGE
LEVER FOR CHANGE (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,486,000 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($21,510,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.7M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $45M
- Net assets
- $5.5M
What Lever for Change does
Mission
We connect donors with problem solvers to find and fund bold, effective solutions to accelerate social change.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Competition design and philanthropic capital mobilization:Lever for Change designs, manages, and administers large-scale philanthropic competitions and open calls that identify, evaluate, and elevate high-impact nonprofit organizations addressing significant social and environmental challenges. Through transparent, rigorous, and equitable competition processes, the organization helps funders identify vetted solutions capable of achieving meaningful, scalable impact. During 2025, Lever for Change continued to manage and support multiple global and domestic funding competitions, providing applicants with structured review, feedback, due diligence, and capacity-building opportunities regardless of funding outcome. (continued in schedule o)these competitions serve as a vehicle for unlocking philanthropic capital and connecting donors with innovative organizations working across diverse issue areas. In addition to helping donors deploy charitable resources more strategically, Lever for Change increases visibility for participating organizations through its bold solutions network, which highlights finalists and other high-performing applicants emerging from competition processes. The…
$8,919,859 spentof which $705,754 as grants$5,213,180 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $8,919,859.
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 2022 to 2023, from $15M to $8.9M (−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.
4% of LEVER FOR CHANGE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Cecilia Conrad
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Julia Stasch
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $7.0M → $1.8M.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 LEVER FOR CHANGE’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
LEVER FOR CHANGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
40% 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 LEVER FOR CHANGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 71% · 2020 62% · 2021 48% · 2022 71% · 2023 99% — 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
79% of LEVER FOR CHANGE's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
LEVER FOR CHANGE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LEVER FOR CHANGE
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 6 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEVER FOR CHANGE: 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 LEVER FOR CHANGE?
- LEVER FOR CHANGE (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,486,000 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($21,510,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEVER FOR CHANGE have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $45,486,000 in grants to LEVER FOR CHANGE, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEVER FOR CHANGE?
- JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $21,510,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEVER FOR CHANGE 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 7 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing