Illinois · Nonprofit
Metropolitan Family Services
Metropolitan Family Services (Illinois) receives grants from 196 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,839,043 to it, the largest being Carole Robertson Center for Learning ($13,075,963). 119 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $180M
- Funders on record
- 196
- Grants received
- $75M
- Net assets
- $93M
What Metropolitan Family Services does
Mission
Metropolitan Family Services' mission is to provide and mobilize the services needed to strengthen families and communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Empowerment: We help families stand up and be heard.The Legal Aid Society provides a wide range of essential legal services to low-income families who, without us, would have no other access to legal help. We offer legal assistance for cases of domestic violence, family and elder law, and housing and consumer issues, and hold workshops to educate people of their rights in these areas. All Legal Aid Society clients have access to the full scope of counseling and other services offered by Metropolitan Family Services. In addition, Public Policy initiatives advocate for better laws and systems that are more responsive to the needs of low-income families.Number of Clients Served - 129,932
$88,410,830 spentof which $3,311,660 as grants$3,231,004 earned by the program55% of program spendingEducation: We prepare young people and parents for success.Our programs promote academic achievement and social and emotional development among children, youth and families to foster success in life. Helping parents, especially younger parents, prepare for the challenges of parenting ensures that children are cared for, nurtured and experience a future of promise and opportunity.Number of Clients Served - 23,266
$36,701,826 spentof which $37,154 as grants$1,541,268 earned by the program23% of program spendingEmotional Wellness: We encourage healthy and productive lives. Through supportive, caring counseling, individuals and families in any phase of life are empowered to better handle life's challenges. Our mental health services provide psychiatric evaluation, case management and crisis intervention to help children and adults with chronic mental illness recover and be productive. We also offer assistance for older adults and their caregivers to meet the unique concerns of this stage of life. Compassionate violence prevention programs alleviate the impact of community or domestic violence. And specialized veterans' services help returning soldiers and their families reintegrate into civilian life and reconnect with one another.Number of Clients Served - 17,615
$23,637,264 spentof which $4,437,210 as grants$7,763,715 earned by the program15% of program spendingEconomic Stability: We support strong, self-sustaining families.Our programs offer support and education to economically challenged families so they may improve the quality of their work, lifestyle and finances. We help families prepare for, find and sustain stable jobs and housing, which is vital to long-term stability. Through specialized counseling services, our Employee Assistance Network helps employees remain productive and achieve balance between their work and personal lives.Number of Clients Served - 35,148
$11,306,219 spentof which $932,615 as grants$2,192,150 earned by the program7% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $160,056,139.
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 2022 to 2023, from $122M to $147M (+20%).
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: 2017 51% · 2018 52% · 2019 50% · 2020 43% · 2021 55% · 2022 63% · 2023 63% · 2024 70% · 2025 72%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of Metropolitan Family Services’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (17% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Ricardo Estrada
President & CEO
Board chair
Erik D Barefield
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 32 funders to 87 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $14M.
20 of 196 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $216M from 21 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Metropolitan Family Services DuPage). These are real filings, and they are not money Metropolitan Family Services raised.
From the IRS filings of Metropolitan Family Services’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 196 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
Metropolitan Family Services has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
57% 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 Metropolitan Family Services.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 16% · 2019 31% · 2020 10% · 2021 8% · 2022 22% · 2023 36% — 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.
How long its funders stay
48% of Metropolitan Family Services's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
87% of Metropolitan Family Services's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
Metropolitan Family Services has grown faster than three-quarters of the 180 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 180 human services nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding Metropolitan Family Services receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $139.3M on record — $139.3M federal, $14 state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$64.7M
- Department of Education$39.7M
- Department of Justice$17.3M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$13.6M
- Department of Labor$4.1M
- FEES - GENERAL - COMMODITIES $14
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Metropolitan Family Services
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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- Metropolitan Family Services DuPage · exempt
- Family Shelter Service Inc · exempt
- Howard Area Community Center · exempt
- Perpetual Trusts (1) · corp_trust
- Family Counseling Service of Evanston and Skokie Valley · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Metropolitan Family Services: 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 Metropolitan Family Services?
- Metropolitan Family Services (Illinois) receives grants from 196 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,839,043 to it, the largest being Carole Robertson Center for Learning ($13,075,963). 119 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Metropolitan Family Services have?
- IRS filings report 196 organizations giving $74,839,043 in grants to Metropolitan Family Services, 119 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Metropolitan Family Services?
- Carole Robertson Center for Learning is the largest funder on record, with $13,075,963 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Metropolitan Family Services 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 196 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