Illinois · Nonprofit
LINK Unlimited Scholars
LINK Unlimited Scholars (Illinois) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,672,440 to it, the largest being LEO AND YUKI GRAHAM FOUNDATION ($1,778,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 78
- Grants received
- $7.7M
- Net assets
- $3.5M
What LINK Unlimited Scholars does
Mission
To connect Black students with resources and opportunities that strengthen the necessary skills to succeed as they advance to, through, and beyond college.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT: Scholars build a strong foundation and support SYSTEM THAT HELPS THEM THRIVE IN ACADEMIC SETTINGS. DURING THE SUMMER, we offer our students a four-to-six-week intensive series which includes a standardized test preparation course for rising juniors.Offerings during the school year include tutoring as needed and scholarship support. Since 1966, we have served over 5,000 low to moderate-income students.
$783,885 spentof which $300,117 as grants47% of program spendingCOLLEGE ACCESS: Students find information and receive mentorship-based guidance to gain college access, make informed, economically sound selections, and earn degrees. For more than 20 years, 100% of LINK Scholars were accepted into selective or highly selective colleges and universities, institutions with high graduation rates and robust support systems. To date, our college matriculation rate stands strong at 91%. Our Scholars are outpacing their peers and graduating college at rates higher than the national average (55% vs. 48%), nearly twice the national average for Black students (55% vs. 28%) and more than three times the average for Black students in Chicago (55% vs. 17%).
$425,807 spent25% of program spendingLeadership development & career exposure: students cultivate leadership skills, which reinforces a strong sense of personal identity, confidence in social relations, and values. We offer several saturday academies/workshops throughout the academic year and retreats that focus on social emotional learning, mental health, self-advocacy, leadership styles and skill development, and community service.
$424,059 spent25% of program spendingOTHER PROGRAM SERVICES:Carrer exposure: Real-world application & career pathways scholarsgain real-world application towards the development of workplace skillbuilding and access to various career pathways.
$48,498 spent3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,682,249.
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 2024 to 2025, from $2.5M to $4.4M (+76%).
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: 2020 5% · 2021 2% · 2023 13% · 2024 5% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
54% of LINK Unlimited Scholars’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. 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
Dr Toinette Gunn
President & CEO
Board chair
Kenneth Johnson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023, and between the FY2023 and FY2024, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $381k → $977k.
20 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 LINK Unlimited Scholars’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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
LINK Unlimited Scholars has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
37% 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 LINK Unlimited Scholars.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 70% · 2019 45% · 2020 23% · 2021 19% · 2022 15% · 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 LINK Unlimited Scholars's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
54% of LINK Unlimited Scholars's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
LINK Unlimited Scholars runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LINK Unlimited Scholars
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LINK Unlimited Scholars: 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 LINK Unlimited Scholars?
- LINK Unlimited Scholars (Illinois) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,672,440 to it, the largest being LEO AND YUKI GRAHAM FOUNDATION ($1,778,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LINK Unlimited Scholars have?
- IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $7,672,440 in grants to LINK Unlimited Scholars, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LINK Unlimited Scholars?
- LEO AND YUKI GRAHAM FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,778,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LINK Unlimited Scholars 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.
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 78 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