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Illinois · Nonprofit

GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH

GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH (Illinois) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,740,095 to it, the largest being CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT FOUNDATION INC ($3,870,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$9.7M
Funders on record
71
Grants received
$9.7M
Net assets
$14M
37/71 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 33%
01What it does

What Gateway for Cancer Research does

Mission

To accelerate practice-changing discoveries in cancer care by harnessing the unrelenting passion of the research community and empowering patients to triumph over their disease.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Gateway for Cancer Research, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was established in 1991 to promote research that more traditional cancer research institutions may not fund. Gateway is dedicated to advancing innovations in the scientific community and speeding them to the cancer patient's bedside. The work of gateway is about giving cancer patients the ability to live longer, more fulfilling and healthier lives.100% of public contributions received are applied directly to support cancer research. Our research and grants committee applies stringent guidelines for reviewing each grant application, recommending to the board of directors only those that are in keeping with the foundation's mission. Gateway for Cancer Research receives funding from a private entity underwriting administrative and fundraising costs. This allows donor dollars to be directed to patient-centered research. Gateway for Cancer Research is currently funding 64 studies.

    $6,270,031 spentof which $5,812,285 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,270,031.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($5.9M) Expenses 100 ($6.7M) Net assets 100 ($5.6M)2018 Revenue 71 ($4.2M) Expenses 93 ($6.2M) Net assets 71 ($4.0M)2019 Revenue 94 ($5.6M) Expenses 47 ($3.2M) Net assets 117 ($6.6M)2020 Revenue 92 ($5.5M) Expenses 83 ($5.6M) Net assets 125 ($7.0M)2021 Revenue 82 ($4.9M) Expenses 117 ($7.9M) Net assets 113 ($6.3M)2022 Revenue 148 ($8.8M) Expenses 129 ($8.6M) Net assets 92 ($5.2M)2023 Revenue 177 ($10M) Expenses 142 ($9.5M) Net assets 181 ($10M)2024 Revenue 158 ($9.4M) Expenses 128 ($8.6M) Net assets 235 ($13M)2025 Revenue 163 ($9.7M) Expenses 167 ($11M) Net assets 245 ($14M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (163)Expenses (167)Net assets (245)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $18M to $20M (+15%).

$15M
$14M
$16M
$17M
$19M
$18M
$20M
$21M
$20M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

128% of GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (51% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 8,611 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$791k
’17
−$2.0M
’18
$2.4M
’19
−$95k
’20
−$3.0M
’21
$128k
’22
$945k
’23
$755k
’24
−$1.5M
’25
2.2
months of
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

Richard J Stephenson

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed252526241515171619
Joined·+3+2+3+0+0+3+2+4
No longer listed·31590131
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 18 funders, grant income rose $442k → $3.5M.

16 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 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

GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 40% 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

74% 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 GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH.

40%
largest funder
55%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 18% · 2019 24% · 2020 39% · 2021 41% · 2022 35% · 2023 68% — 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

20% of GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

82% of GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

MT
IL
MI
NY
MA
WY
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
VA
MD
AZ
KS
AR
NC
SC
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.

Operating margin−16% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,665 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

56% of spending goes to programs.

Program 56%Management 30%Fundraising 14%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

50%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 27 states

ME
NH
WA
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
MO
VA
MD
AZ
TN
NC
SC
OK
TX
FL

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Celebrity Fight Night Foundation Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH: 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.

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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 GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH?
GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH (Illinois) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,740,095 to it, the largest being CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT FOUNDATION INC ($3,870,000). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH have?
IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $9,740,095 in grants to GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH?
CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,870,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GATEWAY FOR CANCER RESEARCH 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 71 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