Summary
What do they do? Active Transportation Alliance works with Chicago-area residents and public agencies to improve walking, bicycling and transit. Its advocacy supports safer streets, connected routes and more accessible transportation. Community organizing, education and events help residents participate in those changes.
Why we’re interested in this organization:
Safer routes can reduce injuries while making regular activity easier.
Better transport access can protect household resources and access to work.
Current local organizing and a clear independent recipient make the delivery mechanism inspectable.
Our main reservations:
Announced funding and projects do not establish additional users, injuries prevented or net household gains.
Public agencies and coalition partners provide much of the implementation, limiting charity attribution.
Travel burdens, construction costs, displacement and counterparty losses may offset benefits.
What do you get for your dollar? $6.4M per DALY in Chicago. DALY is our one-year comparison unit. QALY-based health gains and income-welfare equivalents retain their original assumptions; they are not measured clinical DALYs. Conditional full annual recipient-cost estimate for prospective local active travel and net commuting resources; not a verified marginal gift return..
Conditional planning reference: 25 expected clinical trajectories, 100 resource-exposed households and 25 additional resource changes. None is an observed current causal count.
1. What do they do?
Active Transportation Alliance, EIN 36-3385886, is an independent nonprofit recipient for advocacy, events, education and suburban work. Its current official pages describe Chicagoland walking, cycling and transit improvements, with local street-safety organizing and regional transit implementation. The modeled branch is local to the Chicago metro; headquarters alone is not the beneficiary evidence. Current work Official giving
2. Monitoring and information sharing
The current homepage describes recent Portage Park safety work, calls for stronger city safety staffing and the new regional transit authority. Existing 2025 capital funding and transit legislation are in the baseline; neither is a new gift's entire output. Observe completed improvements, distinct local users, actual physical activity, exposure-adjusted crashes and the transport options users would otherwise have. Event participants, project miles and appropriations are not causal clinical QALYs.
3. Qualitative assessment
Safer walking and cycling infrastructure can reduce injury risk and support activity, while better transit can improve access to work and essential services. These channels overlap: activity gains must not be added to the same wellbeing improvement already priced through safety or money. The model retains 80% of each positive clinical component for overlap, but retains full negative injury or exercise effects.
A hypothetical 1,000 local household opportunities, .2 additional implementation/behavior probability, .25 coalition share and .5 annual-package response imply 25 expected additional clinical trajectories. Annual net utility priors are .005 for activity and .002 for injury risk, for three finite years after a two-year delay. No local clinical causal estimate was identified in this bounded review; these are explicit planning judgments, not a transferred mortality coefficient. No lifetime survivor earnings or historical-project replay is credited.
4. What do you get for your dollar?
Calendar 2024 original expense is $2,526,835 plus $53,646 direct event cost netted against revenue: $2,580,481 full recognized recipient cost. September 2023 and September 2022 annual totals are $2,969,440 and $2,743,142. The descriptive mean is $2,764,354.33. A separate October–December 2023 transition return totals $464,363 over three months and is excluded from the annual mean. No rental expense group was identified in reviewed returns. Different fiscal year ends and recipient-only accounting limit comparability; public project capital and outside contributed resources are not verified marginal costs. Latest original
The conditional clinical result is 0.38 QALYs. Resources use a separate judged 200 unique household opportunities, .5 funding response and .25 additional resource success: 100 exposed households, 25 with a changed outcome. Their $300 one-time net access or commuting gain is halved for health overlap, then the full $20 time/work burden is subtracted before log, yielding $130. The other 75 households lose $20. At $40,000 annual household resources, one welfare person per household, one finite year and a two-year delay, .5 × [25 log(1 + 130/40,000) + 75 log(1 − 20/40,000)] / 1.03² = 0.0205528 equivalent healthy years. Combined 0.405024 implies $6.4M per DALY, not a measured marginal donation return.
Full negative costs remain when clinical benefits fail. Positive gains alone receive overlap adjustment, and household changes are netted before log. Gross salaries and ordinary survivor earnings are excluded. Central counterparty and external implementation costs are unknown-neutral, not observed zeros; matched local losses and external cost stresses are explicit. Broader construction, nonlocal incidence, displacement and full portfolio effects remain unpriced. The full annual recipient denominator is retained while b represents conditional response against continuing alternatives; b=1 exposes that judgment.
The separate resource branch represents additional commuting or route-planning and engagement outcomes, not implementation of the same infrastructure policy. Its .25 success prior already judges additional net access beyond alternatives; clinical implementation and coalition factors are not applied again to that different branch. This distinction is a hypothesis, not a demonstrated program yield. Central clinical households are assumed to be a subset of resource households. Full harms use the union of both cohorts; if a sensitivity has more clinical households, excess people are included. There is no hidden exemption for clinical-only households. The direct bike-to-work guidance supplies a concrete mechanism for the separate behavior branch, but proves neither incremental households nor dollars. No-policy-success therefore can retain direct behavior resources conditional on their own judged success. Commute guidance
Model, assumptions and sensitivity
Whole EIN recipient annual gross recognized expense; finite local clinical and resource component, not project capital, full world return or verified marginal cash-gift yield.
Hypothetical local Chicago metro branch; statewide transit and shared coalition benefits are not assigned wholesale.
changed=N*implementation*credit*b. Clinical=g*changed*sum finite discounted[positiveOnly(exercise,k)+positiveOnly(safety,k)] minus full harms. Resources=.5*people*finite discounted log(1+joint signed net/baseline). Combined=health+resources; price10=10*C/known positive combined.
- C
- 2580481 USD full annual recipient recognized expense (observed). Calendar 2024 original Part IX $2,526,835 plus separately netted event cost $53,646; no rental group identified. Whole EIN recipient, not project capital or cash-only marginal cost. [ata-99024]
- N
- 1000 hypothetical local households with one clinical person each (judgment). 1,000 is a finite prospective local planning population, not observed current route users or event participants. [ata-current]
- implementation
- 0.2 additional implemented behavioral/exposure improvement probability (judgment). Judged .2 additional implementation and behavior change versus existing funded projects. Announced funding is not completed injury or exercise improvement. [ata-current]
- credit
- 0.25 distinct coalition causal contribution share (judgment). Judged .25 causal coalition contribution; no national or coalition-wide result automatically owned. [ata-current]
- b
- 0.5 annual resource-package response fraction (judgment). Judged .5 response of the full annual package relative to continuing public/coalition funding. Whole annual denominator retained; marginal gift conversion unknown. [ata-current]
- exercise
- 0.005 net annual clinical utility from additional activity (judgment). Judged .005 annual net clinical utility for finite three years, not a mortality hazard ratio or lifetime exercise credit. [ata-current]
- safety
- 0.002 net annual clinical utility from changed injury risk (judgment). Judged .002 annual net injury-risk utility; negative safety effects remain full even when positive overlap is zero. [ata-current]
- clinicalOverlap
- 0.8 retained positive clinical utility after overlap (judgment). Positive exercise and safety utility each retained .8 for overlapping health domains; negative clinical effects never reduced. [ata-current]
- T
- 3 finite clinical years (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- delay
- 2 years to first implementation effect (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- discount
- 0.03 annual discount fraction (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- resourcePopulation
- 200 hypothetical unique resource-exposed household opportunities (judgment). 200 distinct local household opportunities is judgment, not a measured unique participant series; resource exposure is independent of clinical efficacy. [ata-current]
- resourceSuccess
- 0.25 additional resource-changing fraction (judgment). Independent judged .25 additional resource outcome among local commuting/route-planning or engagement households; this is NOT the implementation probability of the same capital project. It embeds alternative transport/work substitution. No observed outcome series establishes this branch. [ata-current]
- gain
- 300 USD one-time net access/commuting resource gain before overlap (judgment). Judged $300 one-time net resource change after taxes, benefit offsets, fares, bike/vehicle costs, childcare, replacement jobs and time; not gross wages or all travel-time value. [ata-current]
- cost
- 20 USD full household time/work/fare/participation burden (judgment). Full $20 process/work/time burden for all 100 resource-exposed households, including nonbeneficiaries and clinical-null. [ata-current]
- baseline
- 40000 USD annual household resources per one welfareperson (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- positiveOverlap
- 0.5 retained positive resource fraction after clinical overlap (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- payerShare
- 0 signed matched transport payer/provider incidence share (unknown). Unknown-neutral central0, NOT observed absence of operator/employer/payer losses; signed matched stress included. [ata-current]
- payerPeople
- 20 disjoint local counterparty household-equivalent welfarepeople (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- payerBaseline
- 60000 USD annual counterparty household resources (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- externalCost
- 0 USD outside implementation burden per exposed household (unknown). Unknown-neutral central0, NOT observed absence of public construction or provider costs; full external burden stress included. [ata-current]
- harm
- 0.00 clinical QALYs harm per exposed household (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- g
- 1 Chicago MSA share of modeled local branch (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not measured local causal effect; independent scenarios expose it. [ata-current]
- clinicalResourceOverlap
- 1 fraction of smaller clinical/resource cohort overlapping (judgment). Central 25 clinical households are assumed within 100 resource households, not independently added people. Harms charge the union, including excess clinical households in strong cases. Full disjointness remains possible. [ata-current]
central: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
clinical null: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
financial only: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
full unknown: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
zero expansion: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
true zero: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
adverse: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: -0.34; all-population health QALYs: -0.34. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.11. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
negative resources: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.11. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
negative no overlap: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.11. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
matched transfer: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.04. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
external resource cost: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.06. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
positive access: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.12. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
positive matched: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.08. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
no policy success: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
annual full response: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.77; all-population health QALYs: 0.77. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.04. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
weak: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
strong: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 6.22; all-population health QALYs: 6.22. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
high time burden: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.07. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
half population: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.19; all-population health QALYs: 0.19. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
exercise only: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.27; all-population health QALYs: 0.27. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
safety only: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.11; all-population health QALYs: 0.11. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
negative safety no positive overlap: Cost: $2.6M; Chicago health QALYs: -0.34; all-population health QALYs: -0.34. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
three year mean: Cost: $2.8M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.38; all-population health QALYs: 0.38. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial reference, not observed current causal beneficiaries or a marginal donor quote. Existing projects are baseline; full portfolio unknown.
Counterfactual: Existing public capital, 2025 transit legislation, existing routes, other advocates, alternative jobs and transport options continue.
Attribution: Implementation, coalition contribution and annual-funded response are distinct priors, not repeated discounts on already-measured incremental outcomes. Resource exposure independent of clinical success. Resource success is an independent annual engagement/commuting branch, not raw implementation of the same policy. Central clinical25 is nested in resource100 by judgment; union population determines full harms.
Observed financials and current program mechanisms; all local population, causal effect, resource and marginal response conversions are judgments. Full portfolio unknown is explicit.
Sensitivity
- Clinical-null preserves resources and all costs; zero response, true zero, adverse and complete unknown are distinct.
- Negative exercise, safety and household changes remain full; positive components alone receive overlap reduction.
- Population, coalition, implementation, duration, counterparty costs and annual response materially affect comparisons.
Unresolved inputs
- Completed current local improvements, distinct users and causal injury/activity outcomes.
- Net work/access/commuting gains and full household burdens.
- Outside public capital, operator and worker incidence, displacement and unrecognized resources.
- Priced marginal donor tranche and replacement funding.
Health and income breakdown
For the modeled $2.6M: 0.38 health QALYs + 0.02 income-equivalent healthy years in Chicago: $6.4M per DALY. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed QALYs or DALYs.
5. Funding and previous grants
The 2024 original reports government grants of $477,691. The official giving page identifies the recipient and describes coalition-backed 2025 transit and capital funding. Public implementation and previously enacted legislation continue in the counterfactual; their full benefits are not assigned to a new ordinary gift. No priced unfunded expansion tranche or verified donor replacement rate was found. Audit issue dates are not used as publication dates. Giving scope
Annual expenses
Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.
- FY 2022: $2.7M; Active Transportation Alliance, 12-month period, Original Form 990 gross recognized expense: Part IX plus separately netted direct event expense; 12-month periods, changing fiscal year end.. Source
- FY 2023: $3.0M; Active Transportation Alliance, 12-month period, Original Form 990 gross recognized expense: Part IX plus separately netted direct event expense; 12-month periods, changing fiscal year end.. Source
- FY 2024: $2.6M; Active Transportation Alliance, 12-month period, Original Form 990 gross recognized expense: Part IX plus separately netted direct event expense; 12-month periods, changing fiscal year end.. Source
6. Sources
- Original calendar 2024 Form 990. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Original September 2023 annual Form 990. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Original September 2022 annual Form 990. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Original three-month transition return. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Current Chicago-area work and implementation posts. Active Transportation Alliance. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Official recipient and giving scope. Active Transportation Alliance. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Official financial information index. Active Transportation Alliance. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
- Direct bike-to-work guidance, independent root source check. Active Transportation Alliance. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.