Illinois · Nonprofit
Alain Locke Charter School
Alain Locke Charter School (Illinois) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,517,439 to it, the largest being Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation ($1,050,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Alain Locke Charter School is better cushioned than half of the 9,072 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,072 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Frankel Julius N Foundationshared funders
- Illinois Network of Charter Schoolsportfolio match
- Education Forward DCportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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.
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: 2017 85% · 2018 84% · 2019 90% · 2020 91% · 2021 95% · 2022 93% · 2023 89% · 2024 91% · 2025 90%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of Alain Locke Charter School’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $11k → $360k.
3 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $181k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Accelerate Institute). These are real filings, and they are not money Alain Locke Charter School raised.
From the IRS filings of Alain Locke Charter School’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
Alain Locke Charter School leans on a few funders — its largest provides 69% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 93% · 2019 67% · 2020 69% · 2021 72% · 2022 74% · 2023 83% — 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
40% of Alain Locke Charter School's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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
100% of Alain Locke Charter School's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $120k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 13 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Frankel Julius N Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 25 organizations that share your funders
- Illinois Network of Charter Schoolsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Education Forward DCportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Whirlpool Collective Impact Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- 50can Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- GenYOUTH Incorporatedportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Silicon Schools Fund Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Broad Centerportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Finnegan Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Schools Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Wilson-Garling Foundation NFPportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Alain Locke Charter School
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Accelerate Institute · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Alain Locke Charter School: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Alain Locke Charter School?
- Alain Locke Charter School (Illinois) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,517,439 to it, the largest being Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation ($1,050,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Alain Locke Charter School have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $1,517,439 in grants to Alain Locke Charter School, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Alain Locke Charter School?
- Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,050,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Alain Locke Charter School 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 13funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing