Illinois · Nonprofit
Inspiration Corporation
Inspiration Corporation (Illinois) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,517,627 to it, the largest being CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP ($4,313,859). 76 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.5M
- Funders on record
- 113
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Inspiration Corporation does
Mission
Inspiration Corporation's mission is to help people who are affected by homelessness and poverty, to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing. Additionally, the Foodservice Training program, operated within Inspiration Corporation's restaurants, provides skill-specific job training and employment placement.5840 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, LLC provides affordable and permanent supportive housing to low-income families, including those experiencing homelessness, in Chicago.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Housing Services program provides formerly homeless individuals and families with an apartment and the wraparound services and support they need to make their new place a home.Case managers connect with individuals and families experiencing homelessness, help them identify a new home, and work with their new landlord to make sure that they transition smoothly into their unit. We strive to help our participants increase their self-sufficiency with the ultimate goal of helping them exit poverty for good.We work with more than 100 households and landlords, administering rental subsidies paid through federal and state contracts. Each contract requires us to match a percentage of the total amount with funds raised from private donors.
$1,814,145 spentof which $881,989 as grants$252,897 earned by the program44% of program spendingJob training is located in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood. Inspiration Kitchens, our restaurant and Foodservice Training program site has offered low-income individuals the opportunity to learn to cook professionally at a restaurant open to the paying public, helping them gain the skills and experience they need in the food service industry.Our 12-week program is free to participants, and includes hands-on instruction, kitchen demonstrations, classroom culinary instruction, nutrition education, and employment and life skills classes. We also provide them with the services they need to overcome obstacles like homelessness, criminal backgrounds, mental or physical disabilities, substance addictions, and mental illness.The Lori Jericho Memorial Education Fund links individuals to vocational training or education programs. We provide limited scholarships and financial support for textbooks, entrance exams and other related expenses.
$1,490,573 spent36% of program spendingInspiration Corporation's first program, Inspiration Cafe, serves hot, nutritious meals to our participants in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. Our cafe is open to our participants five days a week and operates like any other full-service restaurant in the city. More than just a place to eat, Inspiration Cafe is a refuge from the streets where participants can connect with fellow diners, volunteers, and staff, and form a supportive community. During times of COVID-19 dining restrictions, Inspiration Cafe transitioned to distributing daily to-go meals which included one hot meal and one cold meal each day.Homeless Outreach Services provides basic street outreach to those who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of experiencing homelessness in and around the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Needs assessments are performed and resources provided related to mental health, benefits eligibility, housing, employment, medical care, and substance use with the ultimate goal of assisting clients in obtaining safe, suitable housing.
$819,881 spent20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,124,599.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.5M to $3.6M (+42%).
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: 2017 24% · 2018 27% · 2019 35% · 2020 44% · 2021 36% · 2022 53% · 2023 53% · 2024 58% · 2025 49%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Inspiration Corporation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Shannon Stewart
Executive Director & CEO
Board chair
John Bankhurst
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 31 funders to 53 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $1.5M.
17 of 113 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 Inspiration Corporation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 113 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
Inspiration Corporation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% 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
64% 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 Inspiration Corporation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 69% · 2019 60% · 2020 17% · 2021 24% · 2022 20% · 2023 25% — 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
53% of Inspiration Corporation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
81% of Inspiration Corporation's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Inspiration Corporation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Inspiration Corporation
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 1 related entity
- 5840 S Dr Martin Luther King Jr Drive LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Inspiration Corporation: 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 Inspiration Corporation?
- Inspiration Corporation (Illinois) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,517,627 to it, the largest being CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP ($4,313,859). 76 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Inspiration Corporation have?
- IRS filings report 113 organizations giving $12,517,627 in grants to Inspiration Corporation, 76 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Inspiration Corporation?
- CHICAGO COOK WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP is the largest funder on record, with $4,313,859 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Inspiration Corporation 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 Inspiration →
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 113 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