GiveBetter x Chicago

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

Local environmental organizing, food justice and youth leadership

Research time: ~4 min on GPT-6.1 Sol
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.
  • Modeling — estimated costs, QALYs and uncertainty.

Updated: 2026-10-05

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Summary

What do they do? LVEJO organizes Little Village residents around pollution, land use, food access and environmental justice. Current campaigns seek stronger industrial review and remediation of contaminated places. Its farm and community garden also distribute food and provide places for residents to grow culturally meaningful produce.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Resident organizing addresses pollution and land-use decisions close to affected households.

  • Active growing spaces provide a concrete food-resource mechanism beyond policy advocacy.

  • Current campaign descriptions distinguish proposed protections from completed historical wins.

Our main reservations:

  • Proposed ordinances and pending remediation petitions do not establish additional exposure reductions.

  • Local clinical benefits, net food resources and the response to another gift are judgment-led.

  • Coalition overlap, industrial relocation, worker losses and housing costs could offset benefits.

What do you get for your dollar? $32.5M 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 annual recognized-cost estimate for prospective local pollution protection and net food resources; not a measured marginal gift return..

Conditional reference: 12.5 policy clinical trajectories and 40 incremental food household units. These are judged expectations, not measured protected population or causal food outcomes.

1. What do they do?

LVEJO, EIN 36-4259477, is the direct general-support recipient for organizing, food justice, youth leadership and administration. Its Little Village service sites and campaigns lie in Cook County, within the Chicago metro. Headquarters alone is not the geographic evidence: the farm, garden and Collateral Channel work provide local anchors. Current organization

2. Monitoring and information sharing

Current campaign descriptions identify a proposed cumulative-impact zoning ordinance and a Collateral Channel remediation petition whose status is pending. These are mechanisms and implementation questions, not observed pollution reductions. The food page reports weekly deliveries to over 50 families, garden plots for over 60 families and 2025 production, but not deduplicated annual household use or net resource value. Request implementation dates, exposed population, measured air or water changes, unique households, food substitution and actual participant burdens. Campaigns Food justice

3. Qualitative assessment

Historical coal closures, cleanup and park conversion demonstrate organizing experience, but are already in the baseline and are not credited again each year or to a new gift. Current prospective protections could improve clinical health only if they actually change exposure beyond existing rules and other coalition work. The model uses separate judgments for implementation probability, LVEJO's coalition contribution and annual funding response. Pollution relocation, unsafe redevelopment, worker losses and displacement remain possible.

The 1,000 local policy-household reference is hypothetical, not a reported cohort. It produces 12.5 expected attributable clinical trajectories after .1 implementation, .25 coalition share and .5 annual response. A .001 annual clinical utility gain for three years after a two-year delay is a finite judgment, not an observed local QALY effect. No permanent coal-closure benefit, citywide mortality reduction or survivor earnings is assumed. Food health effects are not separately stacked on the same cash-equivalent benefit.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

Original 2024 recognized expense is $4,269,375; comparable 2023 and 2022 expenses are $4,090,659 and $3,195,698. Their descriptive mean is $3,851,910.67. The reviewed originals did not identify separate event, rental, gaming or inventory expense groups requiring a revenue addback. This is the whole recipient's recognized accounting boundary; unrecognized volunteer, partner and external compliance resources remain unknown. 2024 original return

Conditional clinical health is 0.03 QALYs from 12.5 expected trajectories, three finite years and a two-year delay. Food exposure uses 50 delivery families plus 60 garden families minus 30 judged overlapping households: 80 units. Annual response .5 leaves 40 incremental household units. A judged one-time $300 net resource benefit is halved for health overlap, then the full $50 participant labor/work/travel burden is subtracted in the same household before log. At $20,000 annual household resources and one welfare person per household, .5 × 40 × log(1 + 100/20,000) / 1.03 = 0.0968455 healthy-year welfare equivalents. Combined 0.1311733 implies $32.5M per DALY. No gross salary or pounds of food is directly treated as QALYs.

Only positive gains receive the overlap adjustment; losses remain full. Clinical-null retains food resources and costs, while zero funding response removes incremental effects. Central policy and payer burden fields are unknown-neutral references, not observed zeros. Worker, rent, compliance and matched producer losses are explicit signed stresses. The joint food-policy case nets same-year household changes before log, or separates different-year household time slices. The headline is a conditional partial-world comparison, not a complete portfolio return or a verified next-dollar donation price.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Whole annual recipient recognized expense; prospective local policy-health and food-resource component. External resources and marginal gift conversion unknown.

Little Village direct local branch inside Chicago–Naperville–Elgin; statewide or displaced pollution benefits are not assigned automatically.

Policy=N*implementation*credit*b; clinical=g*Policy*q*sum finite discount(delay+y) minus full distinct-household harms. Food=(delivery+garden−min(delivery,garden)*overlap)*b. Resources=.5*people*finite discounted log(1+joint signed net/baseline). Combined=clinical+resources; price10=10*C/known positive combined.

C
4269375 USD annual recognized recipient resources (observed). Original 2024 Part IX expense $4,269,375. No separately netted event/rental/gaming/inventory cost group identified in reviewed original; recognized accounting, not complete external social cost. [lvejo-99024]
N
1000 hypothetical local policy-exposed households, one clinical person each (judgment). 1,000 is a finite prospective Little Village exposure hypothesis, not observed protected households or entire city population. [lvejo-campaigns]
implementation
0.1 additional implementation probability (judgment). Judged .1 additional implemented exposure improvement against existing rules and other advocates. Pending ordinance or petition is not an implemented reduction. [lvejo-campaigns]
credit
0.25 LVEJO coalition causal share (judgment). Judged .25 coalition causal contribution, distinct from enactment probability and funding response; shared wins not credited whole to every organization. [lvejo-campaigns]
b
0.5 annual-funded-work response fraction (judgment). Judged .5 response of the full annual package relative to continuing grants, farms, government and coalition work; whole recipient cost retained, marginal donor offer unknown. [lvejo-campaigns]
q
0.001 net annual clinical utility per additionally protected person (judgment). Judged .001 net clinical utility per year for three years, about .365 healthy day yearly. No local exposure-to-QALY measurement identified; no historical closure replay. [lvejo-campaigns]
T
3 finite clinical years (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
delay
2 years until first policy effect (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
discount
0.03 annual discount fraction (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
delivery
50 approximate lower-bound weekly delivery families (observed). Official food page reports weekly deliveries to more than50 families;50 used as approximate conservative scale, not exact dated unique annual household count. [lvejo-food]
garden
60 approximate lower-bound garden families (observed). Official page reports more than60 garden families;60 used as approximate scale, not a net causal food benefit. [lvejo-food]
foodOverlap
0.6 fraction of smaller food cohort already in larger cohort (judgment). Judged .6 of smaller cohort overlaps:50+60−30=80 household units before annual-response adjustment. Measured deduplication absent. [lvejo-food]
gain
300 USD one-time net food/resource benefit before health overlap (judgment). Judged $300 one-time net food/resource benefit after replacement food aid, taxes, benefits and substitution; no observed dollar outcome or gross job salary. [lvejo-food]
cost
50 USD participant time/work/travel burden per incremental food household (judgment). Full $50 judged participant labor, work, travel and burden on all incremental food households, retained with failed clinical outcomes. [lvejo-food]
baseline
20000 USD annual household resources, one welfareperson reference (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-food]
positiveOverlap
0.5 retained positive resource fraction after health overlap (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
policyBurden
0 USD signed household jobs/rent/compliance burden (unknown). Unknown-neutral central0; not observed absence of worker loss, rent burden, compliance, displacement or producer costs. Full signed burdens priced in stress. [lvejo-campaigns]
policyBaseline
40000 USD annual policy household resources (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
foodPolicyOverlap
0 policy households also in food cohort, fraction capped by cohort (judgment). Central disjoint planning hypothesis, not observed independence. Joint sensitivity nets same-year resources before log; different years use explicit household time slices. [lvejo-campaigns]
payerShare
0 matched producer/payer net transfer loss share (unknown). Unknown-neutral central0, not observed absence of food producer/public payer opportunity losses. Matched signed transfer stress is distinct local household population. [lvejo-campaigns]
payerPeople
20 disjoint local payer welfarepeople (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
payerBaseline
60000 USD annual payer household resources (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
harm
0.00 QALY clinical harm per distinct exposed household (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]
g
1 Chicago MSA share of modeled Little Village branch (judgment). Finite conditional judgment, not a measured local causal effect; tested in independent scenarios. [lvejo-campaigns]

central: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

clinical null: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

financial only: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

full unknown: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

zero expansion: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

true zero: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

adverse: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: -0.05; all-population health QALYs: -0.05. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.34. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

negative resources: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.34. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

negative no overlap: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.34. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

matched transfer: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

positive food: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.24. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

positive matched: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.05. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

no policy success: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

annual full response: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.07; all-population health QALYs: 0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.19. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

weak: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

strong: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 2.78; all-population health QALYs: 2.78. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

policy resource cost: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.02. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

joint food policy: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.05. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

food disjoint: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.13. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

food all overlap: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.07. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

low baseline: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.19. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

negative clinical: Cost: $4.3M; Chicago health QALYs: -0.03; all-population health QALYs: -0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

three year mean: Cost: $3.9M; Chicago health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.10. Conditional initial planning reference, not observed pollution reductions or complete portfolio return. Historical coal closures are baseline, not repeated new-gift benefits.

Counterfactual: Historical closures and cleanup, existing rules, food aid, markets, already-funded farms and other coalition efforts continue. No wholesale new-gift credit for completed victories.

Attribution: Separate enactment/exposure probability, coalition share and annual-package response. Direct food households deduplicated by judgment; one clinical person and one welfareperson per household reference, no family or lifetime multiplier.

Observed recipient cost and approximate food scale; clinical conversion, net food dollars and causal funding response are judgments. Full portfolio and outside incidence unknown.

Sensitivity

  • Clinical-null preserves resource exposure; zero response, true zero, complete unknown and adverse cases are distinct.
  • Negative clinical and resource effects are retained in full; positive gains alone receive health-overlap discount.
  • Food and policy household overlap, matched payer loss, implementation, coalition share and annual response materially affect results.

Unresolved inputs

  • Current implemented exposure reduction, local causal health and finite protected population.
  • Dated unique food households, net replacement food and participant burdens.
  • Jobs, rents, relocation, local and nonlocal producer/payer incidence.
  • Concrete marginal donor tranche and unrecognized partner resources.

Health and income breakdown

For the modeled $4.3M: 0.03 health QALYs + 0.10 income-equivalent healthy years in Chicago: $32.5M per DALY. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed QALYs or DALYs.

Method and caveats.

5. Funding and previous grants

The 2024 original reports government grants of $196,034. Existing grant support, coalition partners, food distribution and public rules remain in the counterfactual. Ordinary support funds the full LVEJO recipient, not a ring-fenced new ordinance or another historical closure. A priced unfunded staffing or campaign tranche, donor replacement risk and real partner costs were not verified. The official homepage links the 2026 general-support route; its giving-page extractor was unavailable in this review. Official giving lead

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2022: $3.2M; Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, 12-month period, Original Form 990 accrual recognized expense; no separately netted event/rental/gaming/inventory expense identified in reviewed original.. Source
  • FY 2023: $4.1M; Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, 12-month period, Original Form 990 accrual recognized expense; no separately netted event/rental/gaming/inventory expense identified in reviewed original.. Source
  • FY 2024: $4.3M; Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, 12-month period, Original Form 990 accrual recognized expense; no separately netted event/rental/gaming/inventory expense identified in reviewed original.. Source

6. Sources

  1. Original 2024 Form 990. IRS original return. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  2. Original 2023 Form 990. IRS original return. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  3. Original 2022 Form 990. IRS original return. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  4. Current recipient and local scope. LVEJO. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  5. Current food justice projects and reported participation. LVEJO. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  6. Current campaigns and implementation status. LVEJO. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.
  7. Official-linked 2026 general support. LVEJO / Network for Good. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-05.