Illinois · Nonprofit
EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION
EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 190 organizations whose IRS filings report $54,864,241 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,713,873). 116 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $93M
- Funders on record
- 190
- Grants received
- $55M
- Net assets
- $158M
What Evans Scholars Foundation does
Mission
The foundation provides scholarships and other educational opportunities for caddies and promotes the social and educational welfare of recipients.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The foundation provides scholarships and other educational opportunities for caddies and promotes the social and educational welfare of recipients. In 2025 there were approximately 1,250 recipients attending 27 universities receiving full tuition and housing. The awards are based on strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need, especially in the low- to moderate-income level and outstanding character. The cumulative grade point average of these recipients was 3.3. The graduation rate is 98%. There have been approximately 12,500 alumni of the program since inception in 1930. The revenues for these grants are mainly received from individual donors using an annual fund drive and personal solicitations for larger contributions.
$41,209,788 spentof which $23,463,916 as grants$7,539,696 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $41,209,788.
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 2017 to 2018, from $172M to $78M (−55%).
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: 2021 4% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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
John M Kaczkowski
President & CEO
Board chair
Joseph M Desch
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 56 funders to 75 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $7.4M.
66 of 190 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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: $11M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Western Golf Association). These are real filings, and they are not money EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 190 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
EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
96% 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 EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 19% · 2019 22% · 2020 19% · 2021 18% · 2022 16% · 2023 19% — broadly stable.
“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
51% of EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
83% of EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION'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 $9.3M that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 23 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $46M arriving through sponsors registered in 26 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
EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,065 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,065 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 2 related entities
- Western Golf Association · exempt
- Esf II Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION: 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 EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION?
- EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 190 organizations whose IRS filings report $54,864,241 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,713,873). 116 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 190 organizations giving $54,864,241 in grants to EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION, 116 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $9,713,873 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION 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 Evans Scholars →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 190 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