New York · Nonprofit
CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC
CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC (New York) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,813,029 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($692,169). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.8M
- Funders on record
- 78
- Grants received
- $4.8M
- Net assets
- $19M
What Chess-In-The-Schools Inc does
Mission
Chess in the schools fosters the intellectual and social development of low-income youth through chess education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
School program:the chess in the schools school program brings chess with its academic benefits into classrooms and provides after-school chess clubs for students. Chess in the schools taught chess to 8,748 students in 47 title I elementary and middle schools. We also organized and ran an after-school chess club in 44 schools. - 100% of classroom teachers surveyed reported that chess had a meaningful positive impact on their students.- 96% of classroom teachers surveyed reported that chess improved students' analytical and logical reasoning skills.- 92% of classroom teachers reported that their students applied the lessons of chess beyond the chess board.
$1,342,128 spent$238,718 earned by the program55% of program spendingScholastic tournament program:the scholastic tournament program offers competitive chess tournaments in new york city. Chess in the schools ran and organized 36 scholastic tournaments for kindergarten - 12th grade students. 17 were in-person and 19 were hosted online. The tournaments were open to all new york city children.
$552,902 spent23% of program spendingCollege bound program: the college bound program provides comprehensive college preparatory services to help our students graduate high school on time and attend college. For the 2023-2024 school year, we worked with 95 high school students. 100% of the graduating class graduated on time and 100% of seniors matriculated to college.
$542,889 spent22% of program spendingCis teacher training institute program:the cis teacher training institute aims to increase the number of public school educators in new york city that can effectively teach chess to their students during the school day and in after-school chess clubs. 16 teachers participated in the program.
$17,537 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,455,456.
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 2020 to 2021, from $14M to $17M (+27%).
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 25% · 2018 26% · 2019 22% · 2020 24% · 2021 19% · 2022 38% · 2023 31% · 2024 38% · 2025 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
64% of CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Jenny Ingber
President & CEO
Board chair
Mark Maher
Board chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $153k → $637k.
11 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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
CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
34% 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 CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 38% · 2019 32% · 2020 21% · 2021 22% · 2022 15% · 2023 14% — 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
42% of CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
87% of CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC's grant income comes from New York 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
CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 30 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS 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 CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC?
- CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC (New York) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,813,029 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($692,169). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC have?
- IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $4,813,029 in grants to CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC, 54 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $692,169 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHESS-IN-THE-SCHOOLS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Chess-In-The-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 78 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