Illinois · Nonprofit
CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE
CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE (Illinois) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,566,189 to it, the largest being NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE INC ($6,917,511). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $10M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $7.6M
What Chicago Urban League does
Mission
The Chicago Urban League works to foster economic empowerment, cultivate leadership, and dismantle systemic barriers in the effort to drive lasting equity and prosperity for Black Chicago.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Workforce development services - to promote the growth and comnitment from individuals that will lead to economic self-sufficiency and improved quality of life, and grants and awards.
$2,682,493 spent37% of program spendingCenter for entrepreneurship and innovation - redefining today's civil rights imperatives by promoting and creating economic empowerment opportunities for the african anericans in chicago.
$2,279,052 spent31% of program spendingYouth services - to advocate broadening the base of educated, skilled and engaged african youth and serving as the voice and thought leader for economic development issues in the african anerican community.
$1,421,447 spent19% of program spendingPolicy and advocacy - the development and implementation of education reform, jobs, housing and government projects.
$348,266 spent5% of program spendingImpact - a leadership development program that provided mid-to-senior level professionals with the opportunity to combine executive education courses with topical modules related to contemporary issued facing chicago, and the nation, more broadly.
$594,101 spent8% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,325,359.
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 $7.7M to $14M (+78%).
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 31% · 2018 27% · 2019 27% · 2020 35% · 2021 19% · 2022 39% · 2023 30% · 2024 46% · 2025 40%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE’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
Karen Freeman-Wilson
President and CEO
Board chair
Dr Suzet McKinney
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $2.7M.
15 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $12M from 17 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE raised.
From the IRS filings of CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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 URBAN LEAGUE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 56%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% 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 URBAN LEAGUE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 51% · 2019 34% · 2020 35% · 2021 37% · 2022 40% · 2023 49% — 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
41% of CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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 URBAN LEAGUE's funding base is broadening — from 16 funders to 32 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 290 employment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE
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
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Chicago Urban League Development Corporation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE: 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 URBAN LEAGUE?
- CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE (Illinois) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,566,189 to it, the largest being NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE INC ($6,917,511). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $16,566,189 in grants to CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE?
- NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,917,511 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE 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.
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 83 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