Illinois · Nonprofit
HEART OF THE CITY
HEART OF THE CITY (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,798,047 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($733,542). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $709k
What Heart of the City does
Programs
1) we provided free grassroots community outreach soccer clinics at multiple locations (schools, parks, churches) throughout lake county, providing free introductory recreational soccer clinics and camps to 675 under-resourced youth ages 5-12 in 2025.2) we provided a recreational soccer academy, in four school districts for 6-8 week seasons throughout the year, which develop the fundamentals of soccer and give youth life skills and experiences in safe after school spaces for 443 under-resourced youth ages 5-12 in 2025.3) we provided a competitive travel program for 320 under-resourced youth ages 8-19 with caring professional coaches and mentors combined with a robust youth development curriculum focused on post-secondary support, workforce development, social-emotional learning, and health and wellness resources in 2025.
$996,366 spent1) our youth development & support program provides a holistic approach to the wellbeing of under-resourced student athletes off the field, focusing on life skills to empower youth, as well as physical, social, emotional, and mental health combined with educational and post-secondary support and resources. We held 6 community wellness events attended by 271 people.2) we coordinated 10 college visits to d1, d2, d3, naia, and juco regional colleges for 76 middle and high school students in 2025. We held 3 college readiness workshops for 45 youth in 2025.3) we coordinated with 7 corporations and businesses to expose 68 middle and high school students to a variety of career paths and trades via field trips and career chats in 2025.4) we hosted 2 college id events for 81 high school youth to play in front of over 25 local and regional college recruiters in 2025.
$315,919 spentContiuation of activity two above5) additional youth development programs and services provided to families and youth around building life skills and youth violence prevention: leadership and team building events and activities, community resources and partner referrals, social-emotional learning lessons and teambuilding events, and parent and family holiday gatherings.6) in the 2025-26 graduating class, 100% of the seniors graduated high school, 100% were accepted to a college (third straight year at 100%), and 67% are playing college soccer.
$0 spent
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-PF.
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 2023 to 2024, from $358k to $817k (+128%).
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
Rena Lee
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 15 funders, grant income fell $640k → $184k.
6 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 HEART OF THE CITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
HEART OF THE CITY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
67% 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 HEART OF THE CITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 98% · 2020 99% · 2021 86% · 2022 49% · 2023 33% — 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
33% of HEART OF THE CITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
53% of HEART OF THE CITY'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 $844k that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $955k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
HEART OF THE CITY's revenue grew 86% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like HEART OF THE CITY
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 HEART OF THE CITY: 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 HEART OF THE CITY?
- HEART OF THE CITY (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,798,047 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($733,542). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does HEART OF THE CITY have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $1,798,047 in grants to HEART OF THE CITY, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HEART OF THE CITY?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $733,542 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HEART OF THE CITY 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 Heart of the City →
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 34 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