Illinois · Nonprofit
COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO
COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,151,000 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($1,450,000). 4 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
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $2.6M
What Community Desk Chicago does
Mission
Community Desk Chicago ("the Desk") is an Illinois 501 (C)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to advance equitable economic prosperity in collaboration with historically under-resourced communities. The Organization serves as a help desk and works with nonprofits, community developers and entrepreneurs to assemble the necessary capital, expertise and other resources to develop brick-and-mortar projects that foster wealth building and a high quality of life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Neighborhood Developers Initiative (NDI) - Real estate development capacity building for community-based nonprofits. NDI provides structured learning and technical coaching focused on building knowledge related to real estate development and creating the necessary strategic development plans to be successful. The initial $3M investment was leveraged to secure an additional $4.4M in capital grants and $2.7M in operating support. The program is currently operating in the Englewood, South Shore and Humboldt Park communities in Chicago.
$244,416 spent17% of program spendingWealth Our Way (WOW) - A new program launched in 2025 serving as the overarching initiative for shared ownership and wealth building models. The Desk's previous Community Investment Vehicle (CIV) programming is encompassed in this new initiative. These shared ownership models are emerging community development tools that help to support the revitalization of neighborhoods through real estate and small businesses. The City of Chicago seeded the WOW Capital Grant program with $4.1M to provide capital grants along with technical coaching to shared ownership models in Chicago. To date, $2.6M in capital grants were awarded. The Desk also supported an additional $1.6M in grants and loans for other shared ownership projects.
$377,887 spent27% of program spendingCorridorLive! - Comprehensive redevelopment of commercial corridors in under-resourced communities. CorridorLive! is designed to reduce blight and high vacancy, increase local ownership and improve the quality of life for residents. The program coordinates the necessary capital and resources for corridor stabilization and long-term strategic property acquisitions to bring new products and services to the community. To date, $5.47M has been secured to support targeted corridors on the south and west side of Chicago.
$237,063 spent17% of program spendingBudget and Bricks - Technical coaching and project navigation to assist entrepreneurs with purchasing and developing brick-and-mortar spaces in under-resourced neighborhoods. Budgets & Bricks is designed to scale businesses through property ownership, build generational wealth and improve the quality of life for residents by activating vacate storefronts. The program supports projects on the south and west sides of Chicago. To date, the Desk has supported 50 businesses and helped to secure $6.7M in capital grants and loans.
$53,647 spent4% of program spendingThe Community W.E.B. Program - In 2025, the Desk incubated The Community Wealth Ecosystem Builders (CWEB) for a one-year period. CWEB is a partner to the Desk and complements the WOW program. CWEB serves as a hub organization to coordinate, unify and propel the existing community wealth building ecosystem in Chicago, across four priority models: worker cooperatives, limited-equity housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and community investment vehicles. The WEB obtained its 501 (C)(3) status and transitioned from the Desk on December 31, 2025.
$492,000 spent35% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,405,013.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 $1.9M to $3.3M (+71%).
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: 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 3 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
Kirby Burkholder
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
3 of 8 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 COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO’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
COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
56% 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 COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO.
“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
56% of COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO'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 $1.4M that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from Illinois funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO
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
85% 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 COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO: 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 COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO?
- COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,151,000 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($1,450,000). 4 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 COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $3,151,000 in grants to COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $1,450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNITY DESK CHICAGO 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 Community Desk Chicago →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 8 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