Illinois · Nonprofit
BRAVEN INC
BRAVEN INC (Illinois) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $102,370,832 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($11,470,000). 98 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $28M
- Funders on record
- 145
- Grants received
- $102M
- Net assets
- $47M
What Braven Inc does
Mission
Braven's mission is to equip promising college students with the skills, networks, confidence, and experience necessary to transition from college to strong economic opportunities, which lead to meaningful careers and lives of impact.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Braven supports untapped students from college to career by partnering with institutions of higher ed and employers to offer a two-part experience that begins with a credit-bearing college course followed by a post-course experience that lasts through graduation. Fellows emerge from braven with the skills, confidence, experiences and networks they need to land a strong first job and get on a path to economic freedom. Braven also delivers bravenx, a stipend-based program outside of institutes of higher ed, with the goal of extending the critical work of college success organizations and charter high schools into strong career outcomes after college. By partnering with such organizations, braven helps ensure that their alumni not only graduate, enroll and persist in college, but also build the foundation for a lifelong career path. Bravenx is identical in content and cohort structure as our core product, the higher ed model. In lieu of academic credit, bravenx fellows earn a financial stipend upon completion of the program.
$27,890,287 spent$1,763,702 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $27,890,287.
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 2022 to 2023, from $27M to $43M (+58%).
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 6% · 2022 4% · 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of BRAVEN INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Richard Barth
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 80 funders, grant income rose $700k → $15M.
25 of 145 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 BRAVEN INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 145 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
BRAVEN INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 11 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 11 funders to its left
59% 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 BRAVEN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 30% · 2019 41% · 2020 19% · 2021 11% · 2022 44% · 2023 11% — 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
62% of BRAVEN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
BRAVEN INC draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $32M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
BRAVEN INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 144 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 144 youth development nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like BRAVEN INC
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
83% 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 5 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BRAVEN INC: 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 BRAVEN INC?
- BRAVEN INC (Illinois) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $102,370,832 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($11,470,000). 98 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRAVEN INC have?
- IRS filings report 145 organizations giving $102,370,832 in grants to BRAVEN INC, 98 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRAVEN INC?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $11,470,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRAVEN INC 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 Braven →
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 145 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