Illinois · Nonprofit
NAMI Chicago
NAMI Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 92 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,609,444 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($509,300). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 92
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $7.6M
What NAMI Chicago does
Mission
See Schedule OGuided by the experiences of those living with mental health conditions and rooted in equity, NAMI Chicago educates to fight stigma and discrimination, fiercely advocates for our community, and shares hope, connection and expertise with people on thier mental health journey.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Recovery, Youth, and Prevention: NAMI Chicago works with the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) to provide peer-based outreach and engagement for almost 600 individuals per year transitioning out of Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Facilities (SMHRFs) and Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) into independent community living. Peer support specialists also provide in-home recovery support to individuals recently discharged from these facilities. Grounded in their lived experience, peer support specialists offer personalized guidance in adjusting to new environments, developing independent living skills, and managing potential stressors. They support individuals in their recovery journey and equip them with the essential skills to integrate into the community and successfully maintain independent living. NAMI Chicago's commitment to peer support also establishes critical roles for peers within the mental health workforce. Through NAMI Chicago's support groups, people connect with others who've been there who know what it's like, and who can offer support without judgment. Support groups also provide a safe space for skill-building opportunities, and a sense of hope…
$8,138,947 spent$477,859 earned by the program100% of program spendingHelpline Team & 988 Crisis Contact Center:NAMI Chicago operates a mental health information, referral, and crisis Helpline, providing immediate support, guidance, and referrals to individuals and families. Responding to more than 700 contacts per month via phone, text or chat, Helpline Specialists collaborate with contacts to explore their needs in a supportive, no-barrier space, providing emotional support and education to enhance their agency, self-advocacy, and understanding of mental health systems and resources. Follow-up contacts offer the opportunity to support resource usage and strengthen help seeking behaviors.Through the 988 Crisis Center, NAMI Chicago provides urgent mental health support, ensuring individuals in crisis receive timely and appropriate interventions. Our crisis counselors foster an environment of care in which callers are treated with dignity while collaboratively engaging in safety planning that empowers their sense of agency and validates their experience. The NAMI Chicago Crisis Contact Center answers more than 2,000 calls per month with less than 1% needing a higher level of care. In an average of 13 minutes, Crisis Counselors are able to build…
Mental Health Court Advocates, Case Managers & Clinical Support Teams:NAMI Chicago provides comprehensive care coordination and case management services designed to break cycles of crisis and create lasting pathways to wellness. The department serves individuals and family members during periods of high need, particularly those involved with emergency response or criminal court systems due to their mental health needs. Case managers serve as educators, advocates, and system navigators, helping participants and their families understand complex service networks, exercise self-determination, and access critical supports that promote stability and recovery. The teams engaging in intensive case management serve over two hundred and fifty participants annually, across programs.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,138,947.
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.
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 $3.4M to $7.8M (+133%).
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 44% · 2018 65% · 2019 61% · 2020 56% · 2021 77% · 2022 73% · 2024 67% · 2025 69%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Alexa James
CEO
Board chair
Teresa Garate
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $62k → $525k.
14 of 92 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 NAMI Chicago’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 92 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
NAMI Chicago has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
64% 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 NAMI Chicago.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 39% · 2019 23% · 2020 23% · 2021 21% · 2022 27% · 2023 19% — 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
23% of NAMI Chicago's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
52% of NAMI Chicago'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 $1.7M that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.
Government funding NAMI Chicago receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $90k on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$90k
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 NAMI 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
98%
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 NAMI 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 NAMI Chicago?
- NAMI Chicago (Illinois) receives grants from 92 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,609,444 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($509,300). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does NAMI Chicago have?
- IRS filings report 92 organizations giving $3,609,444 in grants to NAMI Chicago, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NAMI Chicago?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $509,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NAMI 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 NAMI Chicago →
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 92 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