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Illinois · Nonprofit

GATEWAY TO LEARNING

GATEWAY TO LEARNING (Illinois) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $625,628 to it, the largest being The Coleman Foundation Inc ($414,044). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.2M
Funders on record
15
Grants received
$626k
Net assets
$1.6M
7/15 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 8%
01What it does

What Gateway to Learning does

Mission

To provide lifelong learning for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that promotes active inclusion at home, at work and in the community.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The community day services (cds) program provides specific vocational, pre-employment and workforce training to adults with I/dd age 22 and over. Much of the program provides hands-on experiential learning in the culinary arts, activities of daily living, and community integration, while supporting self-advocacy, empowerment and wellbeing. Revenues are associated with the food service lunch program, monthly fee for service programming for those who pre-pay ahead of the state reimbursement, and other activities such as field trips.

    $1,730,353 spent$87,584 earned by the program
    91% of program spending
  2. The self-directed assistance program provides participants with home based waiver funding with support and training in order to best live and manage within their own homes while advocating for personal choice.

    $174,440 spent
    9% of program spending
  3. Gateway to Learning operates two social enterprises, dorothy's sweet shoppe and barley's biscuits, which serve to provide pre-employment training and/or employment to participants.

    $-20,991 earned by the program

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,904,793.

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 ($1.0M) Expenses 100 ($1.1M) Net assets 100 ($1.2M)2018 Revenue 97 ($1.0M) Expenses 91 ($1.0M) Net assets 99 ($1.2M)2019 Revenue 118 ($1.2M) Expenses 106 ($1.2M) Net assets 103 ($1.2M)2020 Revenue 127 ($1.3M) Expenses 115 ($1.3M) Net assets 107 ($1.3M)2021 Revenue 119 ($1.2M) Expenses 106 ($1.2M) Net assets 112 ($1.4M)2022 Revenue 139 ($1.4M) Expenses 123 ($1.4M) Net assets 118 ($1.4M)2023 Revenue 186 ($1.9M) Expenses 147 ($1.6M) Net assets 143 ($1.7M)2024 Revenue 217 ($2.2M) Expenses 193 ($2.1M) Net assets 151 ($1.8M)2025 Revenue 210 ($2.2M) Expenses 215 ($2.4M) Net assets 134 ($1.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (210)Expenses (215)Net assets (134)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 $1.4M to $1.7M (+21%).

$1.3M
$1.3M
$1.3M
$1.5M
$1.6M
$1.4M
$1.7M
$1.9M
$1.7M
'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

Government-grant reliance: 2022 16% · 2023 28% · 2024 18% · 2025 70%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

91% of GATEWAY TO LEARNING’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,793 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$74k
’17
−$11k
’18
$53k
’19
$38k
’20
$58k
’21
$66k
’22
$300k
’23
$107k
’24
−$208k
’25
4.4
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.

Chief executive

Kathryn Lavin

Executive director

Board chair

Kathryn Dunne

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed101211111111121012
Joined·+3+1+2+3+2+2+0+2
No longer listed·12232120
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $50 → $51k.

5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 TO LEARNING’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

GATEWAY TO LEARNING leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

66%
largest funder
78%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 77% · 2020 64% · 2021 83% · 2022 67% · 2023 59% — 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

43% of GATEWAY TO LEARNING's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

90% of GATEWAY TO LEARNING's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

WA
IL
NY
DC
GA

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $81k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 TO LEARNING is better cushioned than half of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−10% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve4.4mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like GATEWAY TO LEARNING

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

80% of spending goes to programs.

Program 80%Management 12%Fundraising 8%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

95%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GATEWAY TO LEARNING: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 TO LEARNING?
GATEWAY TO LEARNING (Illinois) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $625,628 to it, the largest being The Coleman Foundation Inc ($414,044). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does GATEWAY TO LEARNING have?
IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $625,628 in grants to GATEWAY TO LEARNING, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of GATEWAY TO LEARNING?
The Coleman Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $414,044 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GATEWAY TO LEARNING 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 Gateway to Learning →

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 15 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