Illinois · Nonprofit
SECOND SENSE
SECOND SENSE (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,708,097 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,076,630). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The a Montgomery Ward Foundationshared funders
- National Industries for the Blindportfolio match
- Uniquesource Products & Servicesportfolio match
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.
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 35% · 2018 20% · 2019 12% · 2020 18% · 2021 19% · 2022 14% · 2023 17% · 2024 20% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $105k → $665k.
4 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 SECOND SENSE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
SECOND SENSE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
43% 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 SECOND SENSE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 49% · 2019 84% · 2020 37% · 2021 35% · 2022 30% · 2023 46% — 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
56% of SECOND SENSE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
92% of SECOND SENSE's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 36 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The a Montgomery Ward Foundationshared fundersTX · backs 82 organizations that share your funders
- National Industries for the Blindportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Uniquesource Products & Servicesportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Little Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Esther and Harold Mertz Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Brookreson Marie H Tuwportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Dr Harry J Heeb Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Lavelle Fund for the Blind Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Blowitz-Ridgeway Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 64 organizations that share your funders
- Sunnen Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Gibney Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- William R Lathers Charitable Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like SECOND SENSE
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
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 SECOND SENSE: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds SECOND SENSE?
- SECOND SENSE (Illinois) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,708,097 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,076,630). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SECOND SENSE have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $2,708,097 in grants to SECOND SENSE, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SECOND SENSE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,076,630 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SECOND SENSE 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 36funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing