Announcing Illinois Foundation Stats – A New Tool for Funding Data!
To promote transparency and increase awareness of the impact of the Illinois philanthropy community, Forefront has partnered with Foundation Center to bring top-line data about the philanthropy landscape to regional foundations, nonprofits, policymakers, and media in the new Illinois Foundation Stats. This new public-facing interactive dashboard represents the latest available data from Illinois foundations and the IRS and offers insights into:
- The composition of foundations in Illinois,
- The giving priorities, populations, and support strategies of those foundations, and
- Giving to Illinois by all foundations, regardless of location.
In the most recent year of complete data (2015):
- There were 5,424 foundations with assets of $40.3 billion and giving of $3.9 billion in 2015.
- Only 27% of grantmaking went to general operating support while more than ½ of the grant dollars went to specific programs. (Click here to learn why it’s important to support nonprofits’ real costs of operating.)
- 6,202 non-Illinois Foundations awarded 51,231 grants totaling $795.2 Million to Illinois recipient organizations in 2015. See the top 25 out-of-state funders.
- Health continues to be the top funding priority for Illinois foundations. Health represented 35% of total giving in 2015.
- The top population groups benefiting from Illinois giving were economically disadvantaged (45% for 2015) followed by children and youth (15% for 2015). See more population focus areas here.
Does the data look incomplete? Grantmakers: share your data!
It is important to note that the most complete data is shown under 2015, as data for the last two years is still being collected by Foundation Center. Foundations can contribute their most recent data easily and in doing so, strengthen the overall picture of Illinois Philanthropy.
The dashboard represents the latest available grants data from the Internal Revenue Service and a pool of foundations who directly share their giving information with Foundation Center. Illinois foundations can learn more about how to submit their data here. (It’s the same process as adding your data to Foundation Maps and our Giving in Illinois report!)