Illinois · Nonprofit
LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION
LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 120 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,311,093 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($481,999). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.7M
- Funders on record
- 120
- Grants received
- $3.3M
- Net assets
- $8.9M
What Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation does
Mission
The Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation's mission is to eradicate breast cancer by investing in early career doctors and innovative research. Investments are directed locally within the Chicago area, but drive impact globally.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation invests in medical research to help prevent and treat breast cancer, provide critically-needed medical training through grants to fellows, and promote collaboration across disciplines through the Lynn Sage Breast Center Symposium. The Chicago Breast Cancer Research Consortium is designed to make clinical trials more accessible for Chicago-area breast cancer patients at University of Chicago Medicine, Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and RUSH MD Anderson Cancer Center.
$1,894,818 spentof which $1,525,810 as grants100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,894,818.
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 2020 to 2021, from $4.1M to $6.2M (+52%).
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.
54% of LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (39% 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
Kirstin Chernawsky
Executive Director
Board chair
Dr Seema Venkatachalam Malkani
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 23 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $157k → $531k.
18 of 120 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 120 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
LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
59% 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 LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 15% · 2018 11% · 2019 33% · 2020 9% · 2021 11% · 2022 17% · 2023 9% — 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
41% of LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
50% of LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION'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 $1.6M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 2,367 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,367 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
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 LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION: 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 LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION?
- LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 120 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,311,093 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($481,999). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 120 organizations giving $3,311,093 in grants to LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $481,999 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 120 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