Illinois · Nonprofit
CATALYST SCHOOLS
CATALYST SCHOOLS (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,994,971 to it, the largest being THE CODE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($450,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $32M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Catalyst Schools does
Mission
Catalyst Schools holistically educate the young men and women entrusted to its care by a school community committed to teaching minds and touching hearts. We teach our scholars to live a life of leadership, meaning, and purpose, and to build a world that is just and peaceful.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Catalyst maria charter school is a kindergarten through 12th grade school in the chicago lawn neighborhood. The school operates two classrooms at each grade level, kindergarten through 8th with approximately 340 students and approximately 760 9th - 12th grade students.
$17,237,919 spent$307,497 earned by the program63% of program spendingCatalyst Schools partner with urban communities to offer college-preparatory k-12 education. Each child is given a rigorous academic program suited to his or her needs. In addition, catalyst helps each child develop positive character traits that will help him or her be an asset and change agent in the community. Catalyst's goal is to provide a quality educational choice to families who experience the effects of economic difficulty and who have not been adequately served by existing educational institutions so their children will ultimately graduate from college. Catalyst has two campuses. Circle rock elementary school is a kindergarten through 8th grade school in the austin neighborhood and opened in fall 2007 in a building leased from a former private school which was purchased in fiscal year 2018. The school operates two classrooms at each grade level with approximately 511 students.
$10,202,431 spent$90,665 earned by the program37% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $27,440,350.
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 2017 to 2018, from $18M to $21M (+18%).
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 3% · 2024 1% · 2025 95%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of CATALYST SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% 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.
Chief executive
Gordon Hannon
CEO
Board chair
Larry Williams
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 8 funders, grant income fell $295k → $72k.
12 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 CATALYST SCHOOLS’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
CATALYST SCHOOLS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
63% 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 CATALYST SCHOOLS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 38% · 2019 41% · 2020 26% · 2021 69% · 2022 45% · 2023 29% — 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
27% of CATALYST SCHOOLS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
52% of CATALYST SCHOOLS'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 $958k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
CATALYST SCHOOLS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CATALYST SCHOOLS
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CATALYST SCHOOLS: 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 CATALYST SCHOOLS?
- CATALYST SCHOOLS (Illinois) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,994,971 to it, the largest being THE CODE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($450,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CATALYST SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $1,994,971 in grants to CATALYST SCHOOLS, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CATALYST SCHOOLS?
- THE CODE FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CATALYST SCHOOLS 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 Catalyst Schools →
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 29 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