Illinois · Nonprofit
HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO
HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,591,067 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,208,069). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 85
- Grants received
- $6.6M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Hope Ignites Chicago does
Mission
Boys Hope Girls Hope nurtures and guides motivated young people in need to become well-educated, career-ready men and women for others through its holistic, long-term residential and academy programming. The organization provides direct program support and college scholarships.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
BHGH of Illinois is a privately funded, DCFS-licensed, residential scholarship program. We provide family-like group homes, college-prep education, and support through college graduation to motivated students from impoverished families, mostly from Chicago's South and West sides. We have a 40-year track record in Evanston with hundreds of successful outcomes. For our 24 high school Scholars, ages 12-18, we break down barriers to achievement by providing everything a fortunate family might offer: a safe, structured home and excellent schools, nightly meals around a family table, medical care and social-emotional support, tutoring, ACT prep, college application guidance, community service, and extracurricular activities. For our 24 Collegians, we provide financial aid navigation, a scholarship, dorm setup, and computer, internship access, career readiness, and ongoing support when they stumble. BHGH offers motivated kids an opportunity to see the world beyond their neighborhoods and build a future for themselves and their families through grit, hard work, and high-quality education. Our program works: 100% of our Scholars graduate high school and matriculate to college. 75% of our…
$1,968,643 spent100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,968,643.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $8.5M to $11M (+32%).
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 6% · 2022 6% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
Karen Croteau
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $380k → $759k.
17 of 85 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 85 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
HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
48% 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 HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 32% · 2019 36% · 2020 33% · 2021 17% · 2022 31% · 2023 15% — 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
52% of HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
91% of HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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.
Organizations like HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO
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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO: 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 HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO?
- HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,591,067 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,208,069). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 85 organizations giving $6,591,067 in grants to HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,208,069 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HOPE IGNITES CHICAGO 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 Hope Ignites Chicago →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 85 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