Illinois · Nonprofit
PILOT LIGHT
PILOT LIGHT (Illinois) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,920,398 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($279,500). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $299k
What Pilot Light does
Mission
We accomplish our mission by partnering with prek-12th grade teachers to provide them with the training, curriculum and resources needed to support experiential food education in their classrooms.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Our mission is to support and center students as they learn and advocate for informed choices by bridging the lessons they learn in their classrooms to the foods on their lunch trays, at home, and in their communities. We accomplish our mission by partnering with prek-12th grade teachers to provide them with the training, curriculum and resources needed to support experiential food education in their classrooms.
$819,833 spent$192,970 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $819,833.
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 2023 to 2024, from $328k to $539k (+64%).
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: 2020 4% · 2021 12% · 2022 8% · 2023 7% · 2024 18% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of PILOT LIGHT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (51% 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
Alexandra Desorbo-Quinn
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $82k → $292k.
13 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 PILOT LIGHT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
PILOT LIGHT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% 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
61% 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 PILOT LIGHT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 22% · 2019 25% · 2020 37% · 2021 17% · 2022 20% · 2023 13% — 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 PILOT LIGHT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
51% of PILOT LIGHT'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 $933k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $987k 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
PILOT LIGHT has grown faster than half of the 4,665 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,665 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PILOT LIGHT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $472k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$472k
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 PILOT LIGHT
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
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 PILOT LIGHT: 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 PILOT LIGHT?
- PILOT LIGHT (Illinois) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,920,398 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($279,500). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PILOT LIGHT have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $1,920,398 in grants to PILOT LIGHT, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PILOT LIGHT?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $279,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PILOT LIGHT 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 Pilot Light →
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 52 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