Illinois · Nonprofit
SARAH'S CIRCLE
SARAH'S CIRCLE (Illinois) receives grants from 155 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,966,094 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($18,122,862). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $10M
- Funders on record
- 155
- Grants received
- $30M
- Net assets
- $52M
What Sarah's Circle does
Mission
Sarah's Circle provides a full continuum of services for women, including housing, life necessities, and supportive services, to help them permanently end their homelessness.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Interim housing - every day the interim housing program provides comprehensive services including shelter and 24-hour access to 50 women who are currently homeless. The goal of the program is to help women move into permanent housing as quickly as possible with intensive case management, housing coordination, and other individualized services tailored to the strengths and challenges of the individual.
$2,871,096 spent$85,385 earned by the program47% of program spendingPermanent supportive housing - the organization provides permanent supportive housing to women who have a disabling condition who have been chronically homeless. Some women in this program were homeless for over a decade before being housed. Each woman in the program is provided with a housing subsidy, intensive case management, and other individualized supportive services to help her improve her health, well-being, and self-sufficiency. This type of housing has been proven to improve outcomes for the most difficult to serve individuals and reduce public costs for jails, emergency rooms, and other crisis services. In 2020, Sarah's Circle implemented a rapid rehousing program. This program, funded via cares funds, is designed to move clients quickly from homelessness to permanent housing.
$2,610,711 spent43% of program spendingDaytime support center - the daytime support center is a safe and welcoming community for any woman in need, whether street homeless,doubled up with friends or family, formerly homeless, struggling with domestic violence, or simply low income and in need of community. Services include basic necessities, such as food, bathrooms, showers,laundry, telephone, computers with internet access, and an address for mail; educational and general interest programming on a variety of topics; individualized case management; and housing coordination.
$650,690 spent11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,132,497.
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 2017 to 2018, from $9.0M to $24M (+165%).
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 42% · 2018 6% · 2019 33% · 2020 12% · 2021 61% · 2022 45% · 2023 25% · 2024 40% · 2025 49%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of SARAH'S CIRCLE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Katherine Ragnar
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 59 funders, grant income rose $411k → $2.0M.
22 of 155 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 74% 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 SARAH'S CIRCLE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 155 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
SARAH'S CIRCLE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 60% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
82% 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 SARAH'S CIRCLE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 98% · 2019 17% · 2020 16% · 2021 23% · 2022 23% · 2023 25% — 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
45% of SARAH'S CIRCLE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
74% of SARAH'S CIRCLE'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 $7.8M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $22M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
SARAH'S CIRCLE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 488 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 488 housing & shelter nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SARAH'S CIRCLE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.2M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$6.2M
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 SARAH'S CIRCLE
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 3 related entities
- Sarah's on Sheridan LLC · disregarded
- Sarah's on Lakeside LLC · disregarded
- Sarahs Circle House (Sarah's Circle Administrative) · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SARAH'S CIRCLE: 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 SARAH'S CIRCLE?
- SARAH'S CIRCLE (Illinois) receives grants from 155 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,966,094 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($18,122,862). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SARAH'S CIRCLE have?
- IRS filings report 155 organizations giving $29,966,094 in grants to SARAH'S CIRCLE, 89 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SARAH'S CIRCLE?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $18,122,862 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SARAH'S CIRCLE 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 Sarah's Circle →
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 155 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