Illinois · Nonprofit
MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO
MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,528,947 to it, the largest being MEALS ON WHEELS AMERICA ($409,826). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 76
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $980k
What Meals on Wheels Chicago does
Mission
Our mission is to ensure that Chicago seniors and people with disabilities benefit from nutritious meal programs that improve their quality of life and maximize independence.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Provide home delivered meals to over 13,000 homebound and food-insecure seniors on the six federal holidays and 2 additional holidays, valentines day and juneteenth. We opened the nourish chicago pantry in 2022 that provides the largest percentage of food as fresh produce and proteins, in addition to shelf stable items that provides an additional 11,000 proverty-stricken seniors healthy food to fill their pantry. We provide 10 meals weekly to 145 homebound and food-insecure people with disabilities under the age of 60.
$1,337,840 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,337,840.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.7M to $1.3M (−22%).
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.
80% of MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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
Elise Geiger
Executive Director
Board chair
Shannon Murphy
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $61k → $276k.
13 of 76 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 76 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
MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
65% 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 MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 34% · 2019 60% · 2020 29% · 2021 28% · 2022 18% · 2023 23% — 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
27% of MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $915k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,131 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,131 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO
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
78% 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 MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO: 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 MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO?
- MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,528,947 to it, the largest being MEALS ON WHEELS AMERICA ($409,826). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 76 organizations giving $2,528,947 in grants to MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO?
- MEALS ON WHEELS AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $409,826 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MEALS ON WHEELS CHICAGO 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 Meals on Wheels Chicago →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 76 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