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Illinois · Nonprofit

Sweet Water Foundation Inc

Sweet Water Foundation Inc (Illinois) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,265,921 to it, the largest being SURDNA FOUNDATION INC ($1,685,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.4M
Funders on record
32
Grants received
$6.3M
Net assets
$4.0M
20/32 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Sweet Water Foundation Inc does

Mission

Sweet Water Foundation cultivates safe, healthy, and inspiring spaces and places by offering a unique blend of design, carpentry, agroecology, and lifelong education that heals and nurtures people across cultures, geographies, and generations.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Sweet Water Foundation cultivates safe, healthy, and inspiring spaces and places by offering a unique blend of design, carpentry, agroecology, and lifelong education that heals and nurtures people across cultures, geographies, and generations.

    $659,941 spentof which $67,500 as grants$25,759 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $659,941.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($1.5M) Expenses 100 ($531k) Net assets 100 ($1.1M)2020 Revenue 33 ($485k) Expenses 109 ($577k) Net assets 92 ($1.1M)2021 Revenue 99 ($1.4M) Expenses 111 ($588k) Net assets 167 ($1.9M)2022 Revenue 137 ($2.0M) Expenses 132 ($700k) Net assets 279 ($3.2M)2023 Revenue 78 ($1.1M) Expenses 148 ($787k) Net assets 310 ($3.6M)2024 Revenue 63 ($915k) Expenses 181 ($960k) Net assets 306 ($3.5M)2025 Revenue 94 ($1.4M) Expenses 167 ($886k) Net assets 348 ($4.0M)
2019202020212022202320242025
Revenue (94)Expenses (167)Net assets (348)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $1.9M to $3.2M (+67%).

$1.2M
$1.1M
$1.9M
$3.2M
$3.6M
$3.6M
$4.0M
2019202020212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 14% · 2021 5% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of Sweet Water Foundation Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,200 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$928k
’19
−$91k
’20
$857k
’21
$1.3M
’22
$348k
’23
−$44k
’24
$484k
’25
39
months of
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

Emmanuel Pratt

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2019202020212022202320242025
Listed9888889
Joined·+2+0+2+0+0+1
No longer listed·302000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $100k → $1.0M.

4 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 Sweet Water Foundation Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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

Sweet Water Foundation Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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

27%
largest funder
58%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 44% · 2019 34% · 2020 46% · 2021 32% · 2022 32% · 2023 39% — 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

40% of Sweet Water Foundation Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

Sweet Water Foundation Inc draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 8 states in all.

IL
NY
OH
NJ
CA
MD
DE
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $230k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Sweet Water Foundation Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 655 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.

Operating margin35% · top quartile
Months of reserve38.7mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Sweet Water Foundation Inc

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 20%Fundraising 6%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

40%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Sweet Water Foundation Inc: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Sweet Water Foundation Inc?
Sweet Water Foundation Inc (Illinois) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,265,921 to it, the largest being SURDNA FOUNDATION INC ($1,685,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Sweet Water Foundation Inc have?
IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $6,265,921 in grants to Sweet Water Foundation Inc, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Sweet Water Foundation Inc?
SURDNA FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,685,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Sweet Water Foundation Inc 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 2019–2025), and the filings of 32 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