Illinois · Nonprofit
Sunbird Initiative
Sunbird Initiative (Illinois) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,197,297 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($453,800). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $555
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $14k
What Sunbird Initiative does
Mission
| Explanation:| To support Palestinian civil society with resources and expertise to foster an informed youth resilient communities and a vibrant society by promoting skills development media independence and world-class action research. The Corporation funds impactful Palestinian-led initiatives that strengthen local voices in media research and youth leadership connecting individuals communities and ideas to create a resilient inclusive society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
On its FY2023 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
With the inability to recruit youth in the middle east, hands of peace did not have a summer program in chicago or san diego and has discontinued future summer programs as well as the raising youth voices program in san diego.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Alumni programs--in the midst of the stressful israel-gaza war, alumni programming was focused on holding one-to-one conversations with staff and trained crisis management professionals, uninational meetings, and multi-delegation dialogues focused on dialogue, peacebuilding and activism to break the vicious cycle of hatred and violence. All 840+ hands of peace alumni have been invited to join the seeds of peace network and its gather program to continue to build on the legacy of the last two decades. Open to those who are working on social, political, or economic initiatives, gather is a collective of people offering access to the community, connections, and critical resources needed to fuel change. At the same time, planning is underway to effectively support forward-thinking and innovative programs on the ground to shape a more peaceful future.
$248,428 spent$96 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $248,428.
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 2019 to 2020, from $176k to $394k (+124%).
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: 2021 8% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Sunbird Initiative’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Deborah Fosdick
Executive director/chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $155k → $448k.
11 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 Sunbird Initiative’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
Sunbird Initiative has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
73% 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 Sunbird Initiative.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 32% · 2019 24% · 2020 32% · 2021 40% · 2022 45% · 2023 35% — 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
42% of Sunbird Initiative's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
71% of Sunbird Initiative'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 $631k that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Sunbird Initiative's revenue fell 100% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,200 youth development nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like Sunbird Initiative
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.
Public support
62%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Sunbird Initiative: 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 Sunbird Initiative?
- Sunbird Initiative (Illinois) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,197,297 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($453,800). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Sunbird Initiative have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $2,197,297 in grants to Sunbird Initiative, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sunbird Initiative?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $453,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sunbird Initiative 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 Sunbird Initiative →
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 41 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