Illinois · Nonprofit
CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE
CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,769 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $370k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $15k
- Net assets
- $0
What Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture does
Mission
The Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture equips college students and other participants to learn from diverse urban communities through innovative programs, seminars, and internships. The chicago center expands the traditional classroom with a community-based, first-voice pedagogy that prepares its students for greater self-awareness and global citizenship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
Yes. Due to financial constraints, the board of directors of the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture voted to pause all summer and fall program services for the 2025 calendar year, effective immediately. The board plans to revisit and reassess programming in future terms as financial conditions improve, including potential increases in enrollment or fundraising that would allow for sustainable operations.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
General program - to equip college students and other participants to learn from diverse urban communities through innovative programs, seminars, and internships. The center expands the traditional classroom with a community-based, first voice pedagogy that prepares its students for greater self-awareness and global citizenship.
$275,774 spentof which $3,000 as grants$337,299 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $275,774.
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 2024 to 2025, from $246k to $0 (−100%).
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: 2018 4% · 2019 0% · 2020 5% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
8% of CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $8k → $7k.
3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE’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
CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 85% — 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.
Where its funders are
93% of CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE'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 $1k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Illinois funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14k 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.
Against its field
CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE's revenue fell 37% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE
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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE: 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 CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE?
- CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,769 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $14,769 in grants to CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $8,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHICAGO CENTER FOR URBAN LIFE AND CULTURE 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 Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture →
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 4 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