Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Springfield, IL · EIN 37-6160476. Reported 31 grants totalling $1,736,200 to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Illinois Stewardship Alliance, the IRS classifies it under food & nutrition rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE KJ20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 9% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $26,900. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $105,000; the smallest was $8,100 and the largest $150,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
15 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $280,000 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allen's Farm Quality Meats | Homer, IL | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fuller Park Community Development Corporation | Chicago, IL | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Illinois Environmental Council | Springfield, IL | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Jo Daviess Local Foods | Hanover, IL | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Central Il Farm Fresh Enterprise Dev Coop | Mt Pulaski, IL | $148,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sola Gratia Farm | Urbana, IL | $117,690 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Down at the Farms LLC | Fairbury, IL | $110,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Demange Farms | Collinsville, IL | $106,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Paul's Episcopal Church | Peoria, IL | $105,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Urban Growers Collective Inc | Chicago, IL | $95,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Leaf Food Hub | Tunnel Hill, IL | $89,887 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Funks Grove Heritage Fruits & Grain | Mclean, IL | $72,124 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Just Roots | Chicago, IL | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rachel Smedberg Tulip Tree Garden Co | Beecher, IL | $69,900 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Illinois Country Harvest | Prairie Du Rocher, IL | $26,900 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Garlic Breath Farm | Elburn, IL | $17,599 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living Nfp | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Fresh Roberson Dba Fresher Together LLC | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Glaciers End LLC | Johnston City, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Gorman Fresh Produce Gorman Nursery Company | Monee, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Leticia Taliafero Sowing Seed Urban Garden Center | Davenport, IA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mint Creek Inc Dba Mint Creek Farm | Cabery, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Piscasaw Gardens Inc | Harvard, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Regan Joehl Greene Fields Farm LLC | Greenfield, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sharon Pferschy Garlic Breath Farm | Elburn, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Star Farm Chicago | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Palomares Social Justice Center | Rock Island, IL | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
4 of 27 (15%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Allen's Farm Quality Meats
PASS-THROUGH FARMER GRANTS - Illinois Environmental Council
PASS-THROUGH GRANT FUNDING - Black Oaks Foundation
RESILIENCE FUND FARMER GRANT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 6 of 27 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | $75,000 | $75,000 |
| 2022 | 14 | $205,000 | $10,000 |
| 2024 | 16 | $1,456,200 | $100,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
99% of its giving went to organizations in Illinois. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
Find more funders like Illinois Stewardship Alliance
We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.
No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.
Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $26,900 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Illinois.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Illinois Stewardship Alliance's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 16 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 230 Broadway Suite 200, Springfield, IL, 62701.
EIN 37-6160476 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.