Illinois · Nonprofit
The Ruth Project Ministries
The Ruth Project Ministries (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $237,865 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($118,568). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $580k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $238k
- Net assets
- $159k
What The Ruth Project Ministries does
Mission
Provide foster and adoptive families with the resources, ongoing support, and knowledge they need to give long-term love and care to children in need.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Support events/advocacy and training: Our intentional events provide personal mentoring, training, and a place of refuge for our foster families. In addition, our community pertnerships provide experts from lawyers to hairstylists to meet unique needs that otherwise may be overlooked.
$246,636 spent69% of program spendingStorehouse operations/inventory distributed to families: foster families are gifted clothes, toys, equipment, meals, and supplies in abundance. As Children grow and seasons change, they can come back to shop for any new needs. Families receive immediate and continuous practical relief through the Ruth Project Storehouse.
$109,731 spent$497 earned by the program31% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $356,367.
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 2021 to 2022, from $89k to $331k (+271%).
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.
106% of The Ruth Project Ministries’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (91% 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
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
Tamara McMahan
President & Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $31k → $33k.
6 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 Ruth Project Ministries’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 Ruth Project Ministries leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 Ruth Project Ministries.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 82% — 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.
Where its funders are
93% of The Ruth Project Ministries'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 $16k that is directly attributable, 90% of it comes from Illinois funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $222k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 Ruth Project Ministries has grown faster than three-quarters of the 21,648 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,648 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like The Ruth Project Ministries
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Ruth Project Ministries: 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 Ruth Project Ministries?
- The Ruth Project Ministries (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $237,865 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($118,568). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Ruth Project Ministries have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $237,865 in grants to The Ruth Project Ministries, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Ruth Project Ministries?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $118,568 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Ruth Project Ministries 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 Ruth Project Ministries →
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