IFF

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
363656836
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Chicago, IL, United States
Phone
3126290060
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Nonprofit Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$62,525,991
Expenses
$61,504,665
Assets
$828,286,048
Liabilities
$635,013,476

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

24 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Joe Neri (CEO)
  • Kirby Burkholder (President, Core Business Solutions)
  • Tara Townsend (President, Social Impact Accelerator)

Highest reported compensation

  • Joe Neri (CEO): $929,593 total reported compensation
  • Rodrigo Vela (CFO & Asst. Secretary until 11/10/25): $490,932 total reported compensation
  • Kirby Burkholder (President, Core Business Solutions): $389,230 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

IFF champions nonprofits to shape more equitable and vibrant communities through community-centered lending, development, and real estate consulting. Since 1988, we have been working at the intersection of facilities and finance to help nonprofits serving a variety of sectors increase their financial stability and programmatic offerings, and achieve their missions.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community Development Solutions: IFF has worked to strengthen nonprofits and their communities through our expertise in finance, real estate planning and development, and research. IFF will work with local and state government, nonprofit agencies, foundations, and other community groups to help achieve their community development goals by assessing community conditions by analyzing demographic data and trends, inventorying existing community assets, and identifying gaps. IFF also evaluates housing, human services, education, health care, investments, and job environments to provide a community conditions analysis which helps guide stakeholders to develop strategic plans and to prioritize investments. IFF will develop solutions with conceptual projects and programs with strategic partners and facilitate community partnerships by bringing relevant parties together by facilitating partnerships with strategic stakeholders and potential collaborators. Through this work, IFF has helped address a broad range of community needs - from health care, education, housing, child care, healthy food access, and job training. This program also initiates, coordinates, develops, and owns real estate projects that respond to community needs, create jobs, and transforms low-income communities in the Midwest. It acquires, owns and manages community-integrated housing for low-income disabled adults, and redeveloping foreclosed properties near public transit into affordable homes and apartments.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 79% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 48
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.7%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 92.6%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: $15.2 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 98.3%; rating input score 98; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 1.6%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.47; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.77; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.9%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 9 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 95.7% of revenue deployed · 92.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 6 filed program accomplishments · $56.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $930K · 24 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.3M reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 99 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 119 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 40/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.