Illinois · Nonprofit
THE BABY FOLD
THE BABY FOLD (Illinois) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,555,286 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MCLEAN COUNTY ($340,372). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $24M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $27M
What The Baby Fold does
Mission
The Baby Fold embodies christian principles to help families and children develop the hope, courage, and love they need to become whole and healthy.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Baby Fold offers specialized education through hammitt elementary school and hammitt junior-senior high school. These schools are non-public programs and provide education for children and adolescents with behavioral, emotional, learning and autism spectrum disorders ages three through twenty-one. Students are referred to hammitt school by their local public school district based on their need for more intensive special education services to achieve success in school.
$8,066,363 spent$5,495,630 earned by the program43% of program spendingThe Baby Fold's foster care programs provide safe, nurturing home environments for children referred by the illinois department of children and family services. Services are provided for children from infancy through the teen years when they must be removed from their own homes to protect them from continued abuse or neglect. Our goal is to help each child achieve full potential and permanency by providing case management, counseling, and advocacy services to children in foster care, their birth parents, and the foster families caring for the children. The agency provides services in the area of home of relative, traditional, specialized and professional foster care.
$3,952,890 spentof which $22,265 as grants$3,633,107 earned by the program21% of program spendingThe Baby Fold's "keeping the promise" adoption preservation program provides supportive services for any adoptive child living within our service area to help them stabilize in their home. Services are provided to families formed through dcfs adoption, subsidized guardianship; private domestic or foreign adoption or out of state adoption. You do not need to have gone through The Baby Fold for your adoption - these services are available to any adoptive family living within the 22 county service area.
$3,204,096 spentof which $1,144 as grants$3,056,098 earned by the program17% of program spendingAll other programs.
$3,369,453 spentof which $13,165 as grants$3,042,128 earned by the program18% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $18,592,802.
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 2018 to 2019, from $24M to $30M (+26%).
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 11% · 2018 13% · 2019 13% · 2020 17% · 2021 20% · 2022 21% · 2023 17% · 2024 18% · 2025 20%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
34% of THE BABY FOLD’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Cletus Winkleman
President and CEO
Board chair
Rev Dr Kent King-Nobles
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $235k → $349k.
10 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 THE BABY FOLD’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
THE BABY FOLD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 THE BABY FOLD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 38% · 2019 29% · 2020 19% · 2021 21% · 2022 20% · 2023 16% — 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
74% of THE BABY FOLD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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
64% of THE BABY FOLD's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $752k 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
THE BABY FOLD runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,297 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,297 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like THE BABY FOLD
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
83% 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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BABY FOLD: 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 THE BABY FOLD?
- THE BABY FOLD (Illinois) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,555,286 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MCLEAN COUNTY ($340,372). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BABY FOLD have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $2,555,286 in grants to THE BABY FOLD, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BABY FOLD?
- UNITED WAY OF MCLEAN COUNTY is the largest funder on record, with $340,372 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BABY FOLD 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 Baby Fold →
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 37 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