Skip to content

Illinois · Private foundation

The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$197k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
11
Grants FY2025
12
Organizations funded FY2024
8%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$6,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$125,000
Organizations funded a year
11 to 18
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$1.8M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 8% of the organizations The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement funded were first-time grantees, receiving 13% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
ReligionYouth DevelopmentEmploymentHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsOther
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 yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving11$197k9%
FY202412$199k8%
FY202311$122k0%
FY202215$118k20%
FY202115$74k20%
FY202014$67k21%
FY201918$75k28%
FY201818$91k44%
99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Religion$333kHealth$149kEducation$126kHuman Services$112kHousing & Shelter$45kRecreation & Sports$36kCommunity Improvement$14kFood & Nutrition$8kOther$0

Top grantees

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

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
The Fields Church$344,0008n/a
Mattoon Area Family YMCA Christian Association$113,02681%
Coles County Habitat For Humanity$58,00093%
Broadway-Christian Church$52,5002n/a
Camp New Hope Inc$29,00092%
Crossroads Church Inc$21,0002n/a
Woodlawn Chapel$17,5005n/a
Elevate Ccic Inc$10,50032%
Rk Foundation$10,0001n/a
Mattoon Community Food Center$10,00092%
Show all 23 grantees
All grantees of The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
The Fields Church$344,0008n/a
Mattoon Area Family YMCA Christian Association$113,02681%
Coles County Habitat For Humanity$58,00093%
Broadway-Christian Church$52,5002n/a
Camp New Hope Inc$29,00092%
Crossroads Church Inc$21,0002n/a
Woodlawn Chapel$17,5005n/a
Elevate Ccic Inc$10,50032%
Rk Foundation$10,0001n/a
Mattoon Community Food Center$10,00092%
Pike County YMCA$5,00010%
Fellowship of Christian Athletes$5,00020%
Fit-2-Serve Inc$3,50051%
Catholic Charities Inc$3,0006n/a
Lake Land College Foundation$3,00020%
The Little Theatre - on the Square Inc$3,0003n/a
The Navigators$2,0001n/a
Mid-Il Big Brothers Big Sisters$1,25020%
Kiwanis Club of Mattoon$1,0001n/a
Society of St Vincent de Paul Rockford Council$1,00010%
A Ray Of Hope On Earth$1,00020%
Mattoon Pride Softball Inc Dba Mattoon Pride Athletics$50011%
The General Council of the Assemblies of God$5001n/a

Plus 12 recipients with no EIN on record ($332k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMattoon Area Family YMCA Christian Association: $113,026 over 8y, 0.8% of budgetColes County Habitat For Humanity: $58,000 over 9y, 2.8% of budgetCamp New Hope Inc: $29,000 over 9y, 1.6% of budgetElevate Ccic Inc: $10,500 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetMattoon Community Food Center: $10,000 over 9y, 1.6% of budgetPike County YMCA: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFellowship of Christian Athletes: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFit-2-Serve Inc: $3,500 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetLake Land College Foundation: $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMid-Il Big Brothers Big Sisters: $1,250 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSociety of St Vincent de Paul Rockford Council: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetA Ray Of Hope On Earth: $1,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMattoon Pride Softball Inc Dba Mattoon Pride Athletics: $500 over 1y, 0.7% of budget

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 13.

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.

Southeastern Illinois Community FoundationIL19.9× affinity7 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation · United Way of Coles County Inc · The Lumpkin Family Foundation · Amazonsmile Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement with peer funders

About The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement

How much does The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement give?
The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement reported 11 grants totaling $197,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 18 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Religion (40%), Health (18%), Education (15%).
Who are The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: The Fields Church ($344k), Mattoon Area Family YMCA Christian Association ($113k), Coles County Habitat For Humanity ($58k).
Does The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 8% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, United Way of Coles County Inc, The Lumpkin Family Foundation.
Where is The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement based?
The Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement is based in IL.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 35 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Sparks Foundation Trust Agreement’s filings →

More from the funding graph