Illinois · Nonprofit
MONROE FOUNDATION
MONROE FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,100,010 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($762,850). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2026
- $131k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $137k
What Monroe Foundation does
Mission
To educate, link, and assist in the obtaining of funding for social and economic development programs in low-income communities in Chicago and surrounding suburbs
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Get Cleared reentry initiative to assist justice-involved individuals and their families with record expungement, workforce development, financial literacy, and housing support. 102 participants enrolled in the Get Cleared initiative, completing a financial literacy curriculum. 400 individuals participated in 3 workforce sessions with PLCCA. 175 participants gained employment. 75 individuals completed certification training. 27 participants established new lines of credit. 22 maintained six-month budgets and increased savings. 11 participants launched small businesses.
$65,000 spentof which $65,000 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $65,000.
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 $55k to $139k (+152%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 29% · 2022 68% · 2023 49% · 2024 62%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MONROE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 10 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
Paul Labonne
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $33k → $254k.
1 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 MONROE FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
MONROE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 69% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% 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 MONROE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 92% · 2018 71% · 2019 58% · 2020 74% · 2021 38% · 2022 94% · 2023 96% — 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
14% of MONROE FOUNDATION'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
69% of MONROE FOUNDATION'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 $337k that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $763k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
MONROE FOUNDATION's revenue grew 40% between 2017 and 2026.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 104 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2026
Organizations like MONROE FOUNDATION
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.
Public support
100%
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 MONROE FOUNDATION: 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 MONROE FOUNDATION?
- MONROE FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,100,010 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($762,850). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MONROE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $1,100,010 in grants to MONROE FOUNDATION, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MONROE FOUNDATION?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $762,850 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MONROE FOUNDATION 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 FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 12 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