Illinois · Nonprofit
DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA
DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $398,800 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($88,884). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $286k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $399k
- Net assets
- $654k
What Dominican Literacy Center Aurora does
Mission
The mission of the Dominican Literacy Center is to assist the immigrant community in the Aurora, IL area by providing trained volunteer tutors for women who wish to learn to read, write and speak English, and by providing classroom instruction in civics, American History and government for men and women who are preparing to take the naturalization test and become new U.S. citizens.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Women's ESL Tutoring program offers individualized ESL tutoring to immigrant women who wish the learn to read, write, and speak in English. 164 women volunteers worked as trained ESL tutors for 164 women students. Each tutor offers individualized lesson plans and instruction for her student using the classrooms, curriculum, and learning materials provided by the DLC. Each student-tutor pair meets together weekly for up to three years. Students are interviewed during registration and undergo the Best PLUS 3.0 ESL test to establish their English level before they are assigned to an appropriate level of the Stand Out curriculum and assigned their own tutor. DLC staff recruit and train all volunteers and are always on-site to offer ongoing support to volunteers and students.
$278,219 spent$4,251 earned by the program85% of program spendingThe Citizenship Program offers test preparation for any men or women who are preparing to take the federal naturalization test and become new U.S. Citizens. 87 individuals received classroom Citizenship instruction and individual mock interview tutoring in preparation for the federal naturalization test. Each class meets twice weekly for four hours total, for a total of 12 weeks per semester. Students are welcome to retake the course as many times as needed to be prepared for the naturalization test and interview. Classes are taught by volunteer certified teachers and retired professors, and tutoring is administered by trained volunteers.
$49,096 spent$2,425 earned by the program15% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $327,315.
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 2020 to 2021, from $643k to $703k (+9%).
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 19% · 2018 19% · 2019 19% · 2020 16% · 2021 16% · 2022 17% · 2023 18% · 2024 13% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Claire Wiesner
Executive Director - nonvoting
Board chair
Sr M Paul McCaughey OP
Board President
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income fell $37k → $21k.
6 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA’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
DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
84% 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 DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 43% · 2019 41% · 2020 27% · 2021 48% · 2022 29% · 2023 58% — 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
71% of DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
55% of DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA'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 $178k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $220k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA
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
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA: 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 DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA?
- DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $398,800 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($88,884). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $398,800 in grants to DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA?
- MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $88,884 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DOMINICAN LITERACY CENTER AURORA 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 Dominican Literacy Center Aurora →
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 11 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