Illinois · Nonprofit
Protect Our Parks
Protect Our Parks (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $749,056 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($510,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $85k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $749k
- Net assets
- $20k
What Protect Our Parks does
Mission
Advocacy and participation in various activities including but not limited to public meetings, public hearings, administrative proceedings, and legal proceedings in regards to public parks and open space, and to correct wrongful and/or improper conduct and actions, and/or to protect such parks and spaces from illegal and/or improper uses.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Lead participant in seeking administrative review as well as raising other causes of action. The lawsuit asks the us district court of the northern district of illinois to review and enforce long-established federal laws enacted to protect local historic sites, environmental impacts, impairment of dedicated public parkland, and related community natural resources which require a diligent search for alternatives prior to approval of any proposed projects that adversely impact existing public resources.throughout the year, expenses were incurred for the lawsuit which included various appeals, requests for preliminary injunctions and other submissions. Also engaged in other advocacy efforts regarding public parks and public trust property in the effort to keep such spaces open and free from misuse and abuse.
$70,420 spentof which $85,000 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $70,420.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2021 to 2022, from $58k to $27k (−53%).
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.
100% of Protect Our Parks’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (92% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $12k → $22.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 Protect Our Parks’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Protect Our Parks leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
71% 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 Protect Our Parks.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 99% · 2021 72% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
71% of Protect Our Parks'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 $220k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $529k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Protect Our Parks runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,152 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,152 environment nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like Protect Our Parks
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.
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Protect Our Parks: 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 Protect Our Parks?
- Protect Our Parks (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $749,056 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($510,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Protect Our Parks have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $749,056 in grants to Protect Our Parks, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Protect Our Parks?
- Donors Trust Inc is the largest funder on record, with $510,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Protect Our Parks 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 Protect Our Parks →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 7 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