Illinois · Nonprofit
ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations
ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $356,134 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($113,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $411k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $356k
- Net assets
- $390k
What ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations does
Mission
To provide performing arts experiences through which individuals with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities build the confidence and skills to share who they are and all they are able to do.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Ensembles: Actors with disabilities collaborate with a team of teaching artists and volunteer facilitators to create theatre and film projects. Each ensemble serves a maximum of 10 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities ages 15+. Ensembles meet for weekly rehearsals each week over the course of a 6-week or 12-week semester. A.B.L.E.'s 2024-2025 season centered on the theme of INVENTION, with a range of performances and public events.In the fall of 2024, ABLE hosted 3 showcase ensembles that produced Sparks of Invention - a festival of original work in November 2024 at Filament Theatre. In the spring, we hosted 3 six-week showcase ensembles; the in-person ensembles presented two sold-out cabarets at The Understudy, while the virtual ensemble created a series of short-form videos to be shared across ABLEs social media channels. Meanwhile, our performance Ensemble produced an original punk-rock-inspired adaptation of Frankenstein that performed to sold-out crowds April 24-27 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. As always, all ABLE performances prioritized audience accessibility, with pay-what-you-can ticketing, captioning. ASL interpretation, and a relaxed and…
$175,563 spent$27,605 earned by the program85% of program spendingABLE shares our methodology through one-time workshops and longer residencies for community organizations that serve individuals with I/DD and professional development training for those who support them. In addition to our public masterclass series, in FY25 ABLE was contracted by UIC, Paramount Theatre, The Lyric Opera, DisFest, and Misericordia Home. All Outreach sessions are co-led by A.B.L.E.s Creative Associates - staff members with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This season, we also launched a new partner grant toolkit to support partner organizations in securing fundraising for our outreach programs. Program Metrics: -Total Sessions = 17-Total program hours = 29-Total enrollment = 148Across all programs, A.B.L.E. was served by 57 volunteers who gave a combined total of approximately 1127 hours in our rehearsals and public events. This does not include our volunteer board of directors.
$30,982 spent$10,875 earned by the program15% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $206,545.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $273k to $412k (+51%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 7% · 2022 16% · 2023 55% · 2024 11% · 2025 27%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $7k → $17k.
7 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 60% · 2021 100% · 2022 69% · 2023 88% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
50% of ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
61% of ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $138k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $218k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $120k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$120k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations?
- ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $356,134 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($113,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $356,134 in grants to ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $113,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds ABLE - Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 11 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing