Illinois · Nonprofit
Safer Foundation
Safer Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,334,619 to it, the largest being CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP ($5,067,107). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $33M
- Funders on record
- 65
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $1.9M
What Safer Foundation does
Mission
To support, through a full spectrum of services & advocacy, the efforts of people with arrest & conviction records to become employed, law-abiding members of the community and as a result, reduce recidivism.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Employment services in illinois and iowa - provides individualized intake assessments, job readiness training, and industry-specific skills development for adults with arrest or conviction records. Participants are supported in securing employment in high-demand sectors such as technology, construction, solar energy, transportation and distribution, warehousing and logistics, finance and banking, healthcare, food service and hospitality, and advanced manufacturing. Safer's approach to building sustainable talent pipelines includes work-based learning opportunities, including pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship models that expand access to skilled trades careers for justice-impacted individuals. With the support of over 200 employer partners, safer helps participants obtain and retain permanent employment. In addition to participant services, safer provides dedicated support to employers. These services include tailored job matching, pre-screened candidate referrals, and ongoing post-placement follow-up to promote long-term retention and workplace success. Partnering with safer gives employers access to a diverse, job-ready talent pool along with coaching and technical…
$10,154,756 spent$2,761,819 earned by the program35% of program spendingSafer Foundation, as a nonprofit private agency, operates secure residential work release centers for the illinois department of corrections. Our two adult transition centers (atc's) are work release facilities which allow incarcerated individuals to serve the final 3 to 30 months of their state prison sentences in a community-based setting. The goal is to provide selected participants with the opportunity to transition into the workforce, reconnect with family, and reintegrate into their neighborhoods before release, ultimately increasing their chances of becoming successful law-abiding community members. Services offered at the atc's include substance abuse treatment, medical assistant treatment, safer skills training (sst), mentoring, high school equivalency testing, and demand skill vocational training. In fy25, over 450 clients were served at the two adult transition centers. However, on average, 80 high school equivalencies are completed each year, and atc residents are encouraged to participate in-demand skill training programs to earn industry-recognized credentials.
$9,771,256 spent33% of program spendingPivotal Staffing Services: The transitional jobs provided through Pivotal are designed to support clients who have immediate income needs, who are recently released, and who have very limited education and work experience. Jobs are expected to be retained for 90 days or until the client and Safer can partner to find a better opportunity. During the client's transitional job assignment, Safer will provide workplace acclimation training, mentoring, career planning and suport in locating a second job that offers an opportunity for increased wages.
$3,020,037 spent10% of program spendingOther
$2,431,444 spent$383,306 earned by the program8% of program spendingBasic Skills/Education in IL and IA
$1,460,785 spent5% of program spendingRecontruction Technology
$1,369,353 spent5% of program spendingRock Island/Iowa
$984,602 spent3% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $29,192,233.
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 2022 to 2023, from $17M to $25M (+48%).
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 74% · 2018 72% · 2019 70% · 2020 76% · 2021 72% · 2022 78% · 2023 80% · 2024 75% · 2025 81%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of Safer Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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
Victor Dickson
President & CEO
Board chair
Anthony Madonia
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $817k → $2.8M.
14 of 65 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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: $18M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Safer Corporate Endowment). These are real filings, and they are not money Safer Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Safer Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 65 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
Safer Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
62% 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 Safer Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 42% · 2019 37% · 2020 35% · 2021 28% · 2022 44% · 2023 36% — 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
68% of Safer Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
67% of Safer Foundation's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Safer Foundation's funding base is broadening — from 10 funders to 32 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 165 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Safer Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $16.3M on record.
- Department of Labor$10.3M
- Department of Justice$2.8M
- Department of Health and Human Services$2.4M
- Department of Energy$800k
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 Safer Foundation
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
81% 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
Part of a family of 9 related entities
- Safer Housing Assistance LLC · disregarded
- Pivotal Staffing Services LLC · disregarded
- Reconstruction Technology Partners LLC · disregarded
- 5517 S Michigan Ave LLC · disregarded
- Safer Apartments on Kedzie LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Safer Foundation: 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 Safer Foundation?
- Safer Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,334,619 to it, the largest being CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP ($5,067,107). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Safer Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 65 organizations giving $16,334,619 in grants to Safer Foundation, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Safer Foundation?
- CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP is the largest funder on record, with $5,067,107 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Safer Foundation 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 65 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