Illinois · Nonprofit
The Record Community News Group
The Record Community News Group (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $246,604 to it, the largest being INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS ($83,607). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $299k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $247k
- Net assets
- $109k
What The Record Community News Group does
Mission
As its primary and most fundamental activity, The Record Community News henceforth The Record produces, publishes and distributes hyperlocal, independent news and information via a news site, emailed newsletter and audio recordings or podcasts. The Record reports information that is educational to the residents of the North Shore of Chicago - a suburban area north of the city limits and along Lake Michigan's shoreline - and operates in a manner consistent with tax-exempt status under section 501c3.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Record publishes content that educates the public on subjects useful to the individual and beneficial to the community, as the Treasury Regulations stipulate. This work, which as of now takes up 75 percent of The Record's funding and resources, contributes to the public's knowledge on core issues and information that affect their day-to-day lives and their financial and emotional investments. The Record's work creates a more engaged and informed public. The Record covers a diverse range of topics that is relevant to suburban Chicago residents, such as local and regional government, local schools, public health and safety, local athletics and entertainment, business, environment and other local issues. The Record focuses on holding public entities accountable and informs residents of the town's and schools' uses of public dollars. The Record employs a dedicated editorial staff with an understanding of the community that follows and investigates local issues to produce original reporting. All of The Record's journalism undergoes professional scrutiny and fact-checking prior to publication. The Record's editorial standards cover balance, literary quality, originality, sourcing…
$136,118 spent$298,624 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $136,118.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $46k to $109k (+137%).
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.
73% of The Record Community News Group’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $20k → $38k.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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 Record Community News Group’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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 Record Community News Group leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
96% 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 Record Community News Group.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 68% · 2023 53% — 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
75% of The Record Community News Group's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 36% 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
The Record Community News Group draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $120k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 Record Community News Group runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,953 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,953 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like The Record Community News Group
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
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Record Community News Group: 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 Record Community News Group?
- The Record Community News Group (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $246,604 to it, the largest being INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS ($83,607). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Record Community News Group have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $246,604 in grants to The Record Community News Group, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Record Community News Group?
- INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS is the largest funder on record, with $83,607 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Record Community News Group 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 Record Community News Group →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 11 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