How much does Start Early give?

Start Early reported 51 grants totaling $36,763,900 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 37 and 57 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.

What does Start Early fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (73%), Education (13%), Health (11%).

Who are Start Early's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Casa Central Social Services Corporation ($17M), One Hope United ($16M), Marillac St Vincent Family Services Inc ($13M).

Does Start Early fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Start Early?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, The Chicago Community Trust.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

Illinois · Public charity

Start Early

START EARLY advances quality early learning for families with children, before birth through their earliest years, to help close the opportunity gap.

$37M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 51
Grants FY2025: 57
Organizations funded FY2024: 7%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $389,431
Largest grant, FY2025: $3,707,485
Organizations funded a year: 37 to 57; FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 17
Total assets, FY2025: $124M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations Start Early funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $293k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesEducationRecreation & SportsEmploymentYouth DevelopmentArts & CultureOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	50	$37M	0%
FY2024	57	$36M	7%
FY2023	52	$34M	0%
FY2022	54	$29M	6%
FY2021	56	$23M	9%
FY2019	53	$22M	36%
FY2018	38	$19M	18%
FY2017	37	$16M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Human Services$159MEducation$28MHealth$25MCrime & Legal$1.8MYouth Development$1.3MPublic Benefit$689kCivil Rights$434kPhilanthropy$424kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Casa Central Social Services Corporation	$17,263,626	8	13%
One Hope United	$16,371,671	8	6%
Marillac St Vincent Family Services Inc	$12,888,388	8	24%
El Hogar del Nino	$12,369,788	4	45%
Children's Home & Aid Society of Ill	$11,934,091	8	2%
Family Focus	$11,889,028	6	22%
Sga Youth & Family Services Nfp	$11,160,481	8	14%
Family Focus Legacy	$11,109,970	8	46%
Children's Home Association of Illinois	$8,907,184	8	4%
The Children's Place Association	$8,894,143	8	23%

Show all 75 grantees

All grantees of Start Early by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Casa Central Social Services Corporation	$17,263,626	8	13%
One Hope United	$16,371,671	8	6%
Marillac St Vincent Family Services Inc	$12,888,388	8	24%
El Hogar del Nino	$12,369,788	4	45%
Children's Home & Aid Society of Ill	$11,934,091	8	2%
Family Focus	$11,889,028	6	22%
Sga Youth & Family Services Nfp	$11,160,481	8	14%
Family Focus Legacy	$11,109,970	8	46%
Children's Home Association of Illinois	$8,907,184	8	4%
The Children's Place Association	$8,894,143	8	23%
Asian Human Services	$6,769,383	4	14%
First Step Child Care Center	$6,484,938	8	n/a
Spero Family Services	$5,536,353	8	7%
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago	$5,158,820	8	1%
Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness Inc	$4,961,149	8	1%
Public Health Foundation of Northwest Il	$4,875,853	8	75%
Children's Development Center	$4,638,677	8	n/a
New Moms Inc	$3,669,227	8	9%
YWCA Metropolitan Chicago	$3,459,939	8	3%
Macon-Piatt	$3,453,764	8	n/a
Metropolitan Family Services	$3,347,356	7	1%
Teen Parent Connection Inc	$3,295,004	8	33%
Sangamon County Dept of Public Health	$2,498,270	8	n/a
Pilsen Little Village Community Mental Health Center Inc	$2,475,555	8	2%
Tennessee Dept of Education	$2,157,172	3	n/a
VNA Health Care	$1,870,599	8	1%
Child Trends Inc	$1,870,309	5	2%
Everychild	$1,838,341	8	13%
The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago	$1,640,764	4	1%
Advocate North Side Health Network	$1,551,600	8	0%
Oregon Dept of Education	$1,505,257	3	n/a
Lift Inc	$1,500,100	5	4%
Center for Children's Services	$1,420,020	5	n/a
Centers for New Horizons Inc	$1,390,213	3	n/a
Academy for Global Citizenship Charter School	$1,172,305	3	5%
Fayette County Health Dept	$1,165,568	8	n/a
Department of Children Youth and Families	$1,081,045	2	n/a
Tulsa Educare Inc	$1,019,445	6	1%
Educare DC	$986,268	6	2%
Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center of St Clair County Inc	$876,328	3	8%
The Sheltering Arms Inc	$706,371	7	1%
Educare of Omaha Inc	$662,666	6	1%
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$644,507	5	n/a
Christopher House	$612,961	6	1%
Educare of West DuPage	$489,724	6	3%
Center for American Progress	$479,000	2	1%
The Fred Rogers Company	$423,303	4	1%
Puget Sound Educational Service District	$411,286	7	n/a
Educare of Lincoln Inc	$407,443	6	2%
Clover Nola Inc	$394,633	6	1%
Springfield Operations Ecs Inc	$384,445	5	16%
Sunbeam Family Services Inc	$375,138	6	0%
Next Door Foundation Inc	$357,788	6	0%
University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute	$357,538	6	0%
George W Clayton Trust	$351,598	7	0%
Kennebec Valley Community Action Program	$331,105	6	0%
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska	$308,956	6	n/a
Genesee Isd	$287,930	5	n/a
Long Beach Unified School District	$276,628	6	n/a
Southwest Human Development Incorporated	$267,883	6	0%
Texas A&M San Antonio Foundation	$250,000	1	16%
Henry Booth House	$234,811	2	2%
Friends of Educare California at Silicon Valley	$224,952	5	5%
Bipartisan Policy Center Inc	$175,000	2	0%
Champaign County MH Center	$126,699	1	n/a
Council for a Strong America	$125,000	1	1%
Start Early	$85,257	2	0%
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children	$50,000	1	3%
Children's Alliance	$50,000	1	4%
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools	$40,000	1	0%
Republican Main Street Partnership	$35,000	1	n/a
Partnership for 21st Century Skills	$35,000	1	32%
Illinois Action for Children	$20,074	1	0%
Northwestern University	$15,000	1	0%
Northern Illinois University	$8,250	1	n/a

Start Early supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 5 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 57 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 57.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

United Way of Metropolitan Chicago IncIL33.8× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Buffett Early Childhood Fund · The Chicago Community Trust · The Irving Harris Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Greater Chicago Food Depository · Alliance for Early Success Fka Birth to Five Policy Alliance · Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Group · Bright Promises Foundation · Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago (Aka) Vna Foundation · Donley Foundation-Ud Dtd 12-8-86 · Cme Group Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Start Early with peer funders

About Start Early

How much does Start Early give?: Start Early reported 51 grants totaling $36,763,900 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 37 and 57 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does Start Early fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (73%), Education (13%), Health (11%).
Who are Start Early's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Casa Central Social Services Corporation ($17M), One Hope United ($16M), Marillac St Vincent Family Services Inc ($13M).
Does Start Early fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Start Early?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, The Chicago Community Trust.
Where is Start Early based?: Start Early is based in IL.