Illinois · Nonprofit
CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES
CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES (Illinois) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,298,368 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($580,338). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $56k
What Circle Urban Ministries does
Mission
To inspire, equip and empower urban youth to develop a godly character, to reach their full potential and to transform lives and communities on the west side of chicago.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Partner outreach and community enrichment - providing fundraising, building occupancy, administrative and maintenance services for ministries and community based organizations utilizing our facilities. Provides housing to employees and volunteers.
$58,803 spent6% of program spendingCommunity care- weekly food pantry serving individuals and families at up to one and one-half times the poverty line. The food pantry has served 9,931 individuals (4,167 households).
$509,883 spent51% of program spendingYouth development - providing educational "wrap-around" services for students enrolled in the school located in an adjacent facility, including education support, arts and music enrichment.
$404,084 spent41% of program spendingHousing: Circle Urban Ministries is passionately committed to addressing the pressing need for affordable housing on the west side of chicago, focusing on creating housing opportunities for families. Through our housing program, we strive to provide affordable homes to families in our community. Our aim is to make homeownership attainable and sustainable by offering housing options that are sold below market value whenever possible. By doing so, we are not only providing families with a safe and stable living environment but also empowering them to build generational wealth. Mentoring: our mentoring program is a unique and impactful initiative that focuses on fostering leadership skills and personal growth among our junior leaders while providing guidance and support to younger students. We believe in the power of mentorship to create positive change in our community, and our program is designed to empower both mentors and mentees. What sets our mentoring program apart is the emphasis on developing junior leaders within our organization. These exceptional individuals, who have already demonstrated dedication and a passion for serving others, are given the opportunity to step into…
$17,878 spent2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $990,648.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $1.6M to $3.3M (+104%).
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: 2022 13% · 2023 22% · 2024 22% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
Christopher Behrens
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $172k → $338k.
13 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
86% 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 CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 34% · 2019 36% · 2020 55% · 2021 35% · 2022 43% · 2023 31% — 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
39% of CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
56% of CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES'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 $1.0M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from Illinois 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 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
CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES has grown faster than half of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES
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
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
56%
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 CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES: 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 CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES?
- CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES (Illinois) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,298,368 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($580,338). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $2,298,368 in grants to CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $580,338 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CIRCLE URBAN MINISTRIES 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 2021–2025), and the filings of 33 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