Illinois · Nonprofit
SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT
SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT (Illinois) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,118,510 to it, the largest being ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS ($2,759,618). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $21M
What Southwest Organizing Project does
Mission
The Southwest Organizing Project's (swop) mission is to build a broad-based organization of christian, muslim, and jewish faith institutions, local schools and other institutions in southwest chicago, which will enable families to exercise common values, determine their own future and connect with each other to improve life in their neighborhoods. To this end, leaders ofswop have dedicated themselves to building relationships across racial, ethnic, generational and faith differences and to bringing the common concerns of their institutionsinto the public life of the community as they develop the capacity to act collectively and "stand for the whole.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education-related organizing:swop works with local schools to improve the quality of education available to young people, to create opportunities for parents to be involved in schools, and for educators to build relationships with community stakeholders. Swop runs the parent
$17,275,443 spent$23,689,929 earned by the program76% of program spendingCommunity organizing, education, and training activities were performed for the purpose of achiving an economically stable, open, multiracial community within chicago's southwest neighborhoods. At the heart of swop's work is community organizing: a strategy of building relationships between people who share common self-interests so they can work together to build power to achieve their goals. Swop's organizers and leaders work through member institutions to connect with people who have an interest in public life. These organizers and leaders conduct one to one meetings to build an understanding of what motivates each person and to invite them to participate in collective action on issues they care about. This work is funding by private foundations, corporate donations, individual giving, and earned income. This work benefits the 40,000 people who are part of swop's member institutions.
$1,943,208 spent$1,113,516 earned by the program9% of program spendingViolence prevention:swop runs the communities partnering 4 peace (cp4p) initiative in southwest chicago. Through this effort, outreach workers and case managers are connecting with individuals likely to be perpetrators or victims of shootings and help them find alternatives to violence.- people are referred to job and educational opportunities and are engaged in community improvement efforts. In addition, swop is a leader in the effort to create accountability and civilian control over the police department. Swop helped pass the ordinance creating a new police oversight process and is working to implement this effort. This work is funded by the illinois criminal justice information authority (icjia), cdph, cook county, and private foundations. The work benefits all residents of the chicago lawn and gage park communities.
$1,923,521 spent$816,143 earned by the program8% of program spendingHealthcare-related organizing:swop works to ensure that everyone in southwest chicago has access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. Swop, partnering with many of its member institutions, is a leader in responding to the covid-19 pandemic with vaccination and testing drives. Swop leads the southwest system of care (swsoc), a collaborative effort to ensure access to needed services for students and families in local schools. Swop partnered with marquette school of excellence and esperanza health center to open a health center at the school. Swop community navigators are working with families across the community to give them the information they need to access the healthcare services they need. This work is funded by the chicago department of public health (cdph), the chicago cook workforce alliance, and private foundations. This work benefits all residents of the chicago lawn, gage park, west elsdon, west lawn, and ashburn communities.housing issues:the southwest chicago communities of chicago lawn, gage park, west lawn, and west elsdon were ground zero for the foreclosure crisis of 2007-08. Thousands of foreclosures were initiated, and hundreds of buildings were left vacant…
$1,617,702 spent$1,070,496 earned by the program7% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $22,759,874.
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 2024 to 2025, from $18M to $25M (+41%).
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.
7% of SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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
Jeff Bartow
Executive director
Board chair
Elideth Hernandez
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $2.2M.
9 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
60% 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 SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 66% · 2019 41% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 33% · 2023 21% — 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
41% of SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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 SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 328 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 328 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.0M
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 SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT
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
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 11 related entities
- 6000 S Talman LLC · disregarded
- 6725 S Cambell LLC · disregarded
- Brinswop Homeownership LLC · partnership
- Brinswop II LLC · partnership
- Brinswop III LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT: 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 SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT?
- SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT (Illinois) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,118,510 to it, the largest being ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS ($2,759,618). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $17,118,510 in grants to SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT?
- ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS is the largest funder on record, with $2,759,618 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT 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 Southwest Organizing Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 55 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