Illinois · Nonprofit
ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS
ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,633,177 to it, the largest being WESTLAKE HEALTH FOUNDATION ($2,600,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $24M
- Funders on record
- 75
- Grants received
- $8.6M
- Net assets
- $23M
What Aspire of Illinois does
Mission
Aspire's mission is to connect people with disabilities to ever-greater possibilities for learning, jobs, and safe places to call home.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Living: provides support in community group homes assisting residents to develop life skills, empower people through life experiences and allow residents to interact within their communities. Approximately 130 individuals reside in our community homes.
$10,960,359 spent$14,821,942 earned by the program62% of program spendingLearning: provides curriculum based learning and exploration of life and career topics to support the success of people with disabilities.
$3,985,369 spent$3,574,332 earned by the program23% of program spendingIndependent living: provides support in personal residences assisting individuals in developing life skills and promoting independent living.
$565,108 spent$255,879 earned by the program3% of program spendingBehavioral health: provides assessment, intervention and development of positive strategies and techniques for improved social interactions, relationships and communication. Approximately 125 people receive behavior support services provided by our behavior therapists and board certified behavior analysts.
$635,908 spent$647,567 earned by the program4% of program spendingCareers: provides alternatives to traditional employment with job training and placement in collaboration with community partners. During 2025, aspire launched an employment training program funded by a department of education grant. The program provides a 10-week job training course with an 8-week paid internship within the distribution industry.
$1,240,217 spent$300,903 earned by the program7% of program spendingCoffeeworks: social enterprise and dynamic partnership with metropolis coffee company and canteen-vending to employ adults with disabilities to roast and ship coffee across the country. All net proceeds benefit aspire.
$212,909 spent$149,586 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $17,599,870.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $11M to $16M (+56%).
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 4% · 2018 2% · 2019 3% · 2020 4% · 2021 16% · 2022 2% · 2023 6% · 2024 2% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
16% of ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Serena Alaily
President, CEO & director
Board chair
Brad Weir
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $324k → $1.4M.
12 of 75 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 75 funders by total. 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
ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 18% · 2019 31% · 2020 28% · 2021 35% · 2022 26% · 2023 40% — growing more concentrated.
“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
34% of ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
82% of ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,297 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,297 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS
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
84% 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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS: 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 ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS?
- ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS (Illinois) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,633,177 to it, the largest being WESTLAKE HEALTH FOUNDATION ($2,600,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS have?
- IRS filings report 75 organizations giving $8,633,177 in grants to ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS?
- WESTLAKE HEALTH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASPIRE OF ILLINOIS 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 Aspire of Illinois →
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 75 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing