Illinois · Nonprofit
Chicago Foundation for Education
Chicago Foundation for Education (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,164,675 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($255,461). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2023
- $100k
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $112k
What Chicago Foundation for Education does
Mission
The Chicago Foundation for Education (CFE) is an Illinois education non-profit organization established in 1985. CFE supports PreK through 12th grade Chicago Public School educators with leadership, growth, and grant opportunities that translate into enhanced learning experiences for students.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Programs
Relief Fund/Educator Impact Fund - aims to furnish school communities with the digital learning tools, physical equipment, and other classroom supplies necessary to support high quality instruction and engagement.
$329,773 spentof which $255,764 as grants91% of program spendingAction Research Leadership Institute - develop the analytical capacity and leadership potential of Chicago's most outstanding educators. Participants conduct action research projects with students in their schools, with a keen focus on improving student experiences and enhancing success. Fellows are provided opportunities to share data and resulting policy recommendations with colleagues and other Chicago-area education leaders.
$14,639 spentof which $7,100 as grants4% of program spendingStudy Group Grants - Provides funding for CFE-TST Impact Teams' school-wide projects. Grants are awarded to "Teacher Liaisons" to help cover supplies and general resources costs associated with running the "Impact Team Members and accomplishing collective team goals.
$7,000 spentof which $7,000 as grants2% of program spendingCFE and Teachers Supporting Teachers partner on the CFE | TST Impact Grant Program that awards funding to TST Impact Teams to cover school-wide project supplies and resources. $500 each.
$10,462 spent3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2022 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $361,874.
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.
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 $487k to $116k (−76%).
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 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 7 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
Michael Patock
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 10 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $196k → $11k.
7 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 Foundation for Education’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
Chicago Foundation for Education has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
53% 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 Foundation for Education.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 19% · 2019 25% · 2020 15% · 2021 30% · 2022 26% · 2023 99% — 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
46% of Chicago Foundation for Education's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
53% of Chicago Foundation for Education'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 $544k that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $620k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Organizations like Chicago Foundation for Education
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
78% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Chicago Foundation for Education: 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 Foundation for Education?
- Chicago Foundation for Education (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,164,675 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($255,461). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Chicago Foundation for Education have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,164,675 in grants to Chicago Foundation for Education, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Chicago Foundation for Education?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $255,461 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Chicago Foundation for Education 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 Foundation for Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 31 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