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Illinois · Nonprofit

REFORM FOR ILLINOIS

REFORM FOR ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $939,573 to it, the largest being Square One Foundation ($314,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$321k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$940k
Net assets
$329k
10/16 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Reform for Illinois does

Mission

Conducts research on government trends, advocates reforms and hosts educational events to promote public participation in government, addresses the role of money in politics, and encourges integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Our core program focuses on providing free educational events for voters, advocating campaign finance reform, transparency and ethics in government, and providing tools for voter engagement. We accomplish this by researching and advocating legislation, providing in-depth research on government trends in illinois, advocating for increased disclosure of campaign conributions, and maintaining illinois sunshine, a free online database that tracks political spending in the state of illinois.

    $198,787 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $198,787.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($171k) Expenses 100 ($140k) Net assets 100 ($179k)2019 Revenue 166 ($284k) Expenses 202 ($284k) Net assets 126 ($226k)2020 Revenue 100 ($171k) Expenses 158 ($222k) Net assets 98 ($176k)2021 Revenue 158 ($269k) Expenses 126 ($178k) Net assets 149 ($267k)2022 Revenue 77 ($132k) Expenses 133 ($186k) Net assets 119 ($213k)2023 Revenue 99 ($168k) Expenses 139 ($195k) Net assets 104 ($187k)2024 Revenue 141 ($242k) Expenses 139 ($195k) Net assets 130 ($233k)2025 Revenue 188 ($321k) Expenses 160 ($225k) Net assets 184 ($329k)
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (188)Expenses (160)Net assets (184)Peer revenue range

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 $233k to $338k (+45%).

$180k
$233k
$338k
$430k
$338k
$326k
$352k
$451k
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 14% · 2022 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of REFORM FOR ILLINOIS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (99% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,975 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$30k
’17
$22
’19
−$50k
’20
$92k
’21
−$54k
’22
−$27k
’23
$47k
’24
$96k
’25
24
months of
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

Alisa Kaplan

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2019202020212022202320242025
Listed111114129911
Joined·+1+5+0+1+0+3
No longer listed·122401
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $25k → $178k.

5 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 REFORM FOR ILLINOIS’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

REFORM FOR ILLINOIS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

50% 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 REFORM FOR ILLINOIS.

33%
largest funder
67%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2020 81% · 2021 68% · 2022 73% · 2023 44% — 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

50% of REFORM FOR ILLINOIS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

90% of REFORM FOR ILLINOIS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

IL
MA
DE
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $415k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

REFORM FOR ILLINOIS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 904 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin30% · top quartile
Months of reserve24.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 904 civil rights nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like REFORM FOR ILLINOIS

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 4%Fundraising 8%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for REFORM FOR ILLINOIS: 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.

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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 REFORM FOR ILLINOIS?
REFORM FOR ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $939,573 to it, the largest being Square One Foundation ($314,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does REFORM FOR ILLINOIS have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $939,573 in grants to REFORM FOR ILLINOIS, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of REFORM FOR ILLINOIS?
Square One Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $314,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like REFORM FOR ILLINOIS 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 Reform for Illinois →

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 16 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