Illinois · Nonprofit
ENCHANTED BACKPACK
ENCHANTED BACKPACK (Illinois) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,835,212 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($7,988,583). 23 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 FY2024
- $5.6M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Enchanted Backpack does
Programs
Mobile van program - carries out its exempt activities by acquiring and delivering school supplies and school accessories based on focus groups and surveys with school principals, administrators and teachers. The organization provides tools to help improve learning and teach important values such as sharing and self-respect to younger children during their formative years. This program has been expanded to include the teacher appreciationi-anb--washer dryer. And pay it forwardprograms. The teacher appreciation program provides schools with resources to show gratitude and supportto their teachers. The washer dryer program provides washing machines, dryers and related supplies to schools to enhance students' self-esteem and attendance. The pay it forward program provides a second delivery of school supplies and school accessories and a cash grant to create or enchance an existing kindness program to selected schools. We want to make a difference in the lives of children and teachers.
$935,136 spentAdopt a school program - Enchanted Backpack carries out its exempt activities by partnering with selected school teachers and principals to determine larger needs outside of classroom supplies. These could be projects such as playground equipment, enhanced reading centers, upgraded technology or other innovative ideas. Enchanted Backpack then donates up to $20,000 to these schools to fund these efforts. The partnership lasts an entire school year, with additional support provided by Enchanted Backpack to ensure the success of these projects. This program further supports Enchanted Backpack's mission to make a real difference in lives of children and teachers.
$48,657 spentCc's wish list Enchanted Backpack carries out its exempt activities by donating inkind goods to taxexempt organizations supporting those in need in the communities in which they operate. Qualifying organizations receive information on available merchandise from cc's wish list on a rotating basis throughout the year and submit a wish list based on what items from the list will best serve the constituents, clients, guests and community within which they provide support services. Inkind donation items generally include clothing, outerwear, shoes, bedding, and home goods. The program maximizes community impact with incredible gifts inkind, achieving the Enchanted Backpack mission to make a real difference in the lives of children and their surrounding communities.
$1,029,611 spent
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $1.3M to $4.7M (+246%).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $3k → $2.0M.
8 of 35 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 ENCHANTED BACKPACK’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
ENCHANTED BACKPACK leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
65% 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 ENCHANTED BACKPACK.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 75% · 2019 86% · 2020 64% · 2021 90% · 2022 50% · 2023 51% — 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
40% of ENCHANTED BACKPACK's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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 ENCHANTED BACKPACK'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 $6.6M that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.2M 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.
Against its field
ENCHANTED BACKPACK has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like ENCHANTED BACKPACK
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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ENCHANTED BACKPACK: 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 ENCHANTED BACKPACK?
- ENCHANTED BACKPACK (Illinois) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,835,212 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($7,988,583). 23 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 ENCHANTED BACKPACK have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $14,835,212 in grants to ENCHANTED BACKPACK, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ENCHANTED BACKPACK?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $7,988,583 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ENCHANTED BACKPACK 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 FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 35 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