Illinois · Nonprofit
LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)
LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) (Illinois) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,054,412 to it, the largest being CITI FOUNDATION ($400,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $7.1M
What Ladder Up (F/K/A City-Wide Tax Assistance Program) does
Mission
The organization helps low-income families and individuals access the financial resources they need to climb up the economic ladder. The organization offers free tax preparation, financial aid and financial education services.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tax assistance program:ladder up operates one of the largest and oldest state-wide volunteer income tax assistance programs of its kind, offering both in-person and digital services to over 15,000 individuals across illinois. Ladder up provides families with free, high-quality tax preparation, an alternative to paid tax prep.
$1,763,828 spent82% of program spendingLow-income tax clinic:ladder up provides free, high quality professional repressentation to low-income tax payers facing an irs or idor controversy. Through its offices, ladder up offers educational outreach on the earned income tax credit, stimulus payments, advance child tax credits, taxpayer rights, responsibilities and collection alternatives.
$238,468 spent11% of program spendingFinancial capability program:ladder up provides year-round workshops, coordinates savings campaigns, and offers financial coaching to help clients set financial goals and manage major life financial events. In addition to this, ladder up highly values and supports its free application training for federal student aid (fafsa) and completion workshops at high schools for schools and community partners.
$153,424 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,155,720.
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 $4.7M to $6.9M (+47%).
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 48% · 2018 42% · 2020 53% · 2021 59% · 2022 67% · 2023 63% · 2024 49% · 2025 64%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Robert M Burke
Chairman & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 18 funders, grant income fell $225k → $219k.
14 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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
LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
42% 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 LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM).
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 28% · 2019 39% · 2020 21% · 2021 32% · 2022 32% · 2023 34% — 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
36% of LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)'s funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
50% of LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)'s grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $607k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) has grown faster than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.0M on record.
- Department of the Treasury$4.0M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
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
- Center for Economic Progress · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM): 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 LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)?
- LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) (Illinois) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,054,412 to it, the largest being CITI FOUNDATION ($400,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $3,054,412 in grants to LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM), 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM)?
- CITI FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LADDER UP (F/K/A CITY-WIDE TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM) 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 Ladder Up (F/K/A City-Wide Tax Assistance Program) →
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 56 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