Illinois · Nonprofit
PEOPLE'S ACTION
PEOPLE'S ACTION (Illinois) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,521,789 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($1,620,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $9.5M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What People's Action does
Mission
People's Action is organized to promote economic, racial and social equity through national, regional and local advocacy campaigns.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
See schedule oadvocacy - the organization conducts advocacy and lobbying activities to support and advance national agenda for low- and moderate-income people. Our agenda is based around a range of issues affecting working people and their communities that include health care, clean energy, housing, immigration, access and affordability to higher education, and the overdose crisis and issues relating to criminalization of these communities. Achievements 2024:People's Action is a primarily a public education and advocacy organization with a minority purpose program that engages everyday people in the electoral process. The public education and advocacy work focuses on three national issues: affordable and accessible healthcare, clean and affordable energy, and housing affordability and access. The training program taught everyday people how to have deep listening conversations that engage community members on potentially divisive issues in order to build relationships across lines of difference. The minority program on politics and elections focused on training candidates for public office who come out of our member organizations and on supporting affiliated 501c4 organizations on…
$1,346,177 spentof which $47,000 as grants$66,272 earned by the program68% of program spendingSee schedule opolitical - the organization engages in the electoral process by supporting candidates aligned with our organizational mission, our issue-based agenda and vision for the country. We generate energy around the election cycle using our issues and move people to participate in the democratic process through mass volunteerism. We support state and local organizations from across the country that are working towards building independent political power and functional models for co-governance.
$639,252 spentof which $105,030 as grants32% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,985,429.
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 2019 to 2020, from $2.0M to $3.5M (+72%).
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.
97% of PEOPLE'S ACTION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Sulma Arias
Executive director
Board chair
Juanita Lewis
Board member, chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $318k → $819k.
3 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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: $50k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Center for Community Change). These are real filings, and they are not money PEOPLE'S ACTION raised.
From the IRS filings of PEOPLE'S ACTION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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
PEOPLE'S ACTION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% 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
99% 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 PEOPLE'S ACTION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 65% · 2019 32% · 2020 13% · 2021 26% · 2022 35% · 2023 61% — 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
25% of PEOPLE'S ACTION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
PEOPLE'S ACTION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
PEOPLE'S ACTION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like PEOPLE'S ACTION
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- People's Action Outreach LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PEOPLE'S ACTION: 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 PEOPLE'S ACTION?
- PEOPLE'S ACTION (Illinois) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,521,789 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($1,620,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PEOPLE'S ACTION have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $9,521,789 in grants to PEOPLE'S ACTION, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PEOPLE'S ACTION?
- TIDES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,620,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PEOPLE'S ACTION 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 32 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing