Illinois · Nonprofit
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES (Illinois) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,999,751 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,222,610). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What National Association for Urban Debate Leagues does
Mission
Advancing debate education in urban public schools to amplify youth voices and to develop confidence for future success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
In 2025, naudl serves as a backbone organization supporting 20 debate league partners across 20 cities in metropolitan and predominantly underserved areas nationwide. Through the urban debate network, naudl collaborates with these formal partners to establish, strengthen, and sustain debate programs, practices, and competitions serving approximately 12,000 middle and high school debaters from 800 schools. The urban debate network serves schools where 71% of students are economically disadvantaged, advancing opportunities for youth from communities with limited access to academic enrichment.
$763,628 spentof which $31,000 as grants58% of program spendingUrban debate national championship (udnc): naudl's marquee event, and the pinnacle of the season, this tournament welcomes 80 plus of the network's top policy debaters to compete and network on a renowned college campus. Each league is eligible to have two qualifying teams (four students) represent them in the competition. The 2025 tournament was held at emory university in atlanta, ga. No entry fees are charged for students participaing in the torunament. Naudl covers a portion of all travel and hotel, as well as food and other tournament costs, for all teams.debate en espanol (dee): dee is a curriculum and competition created for, and by, spanish-speaking debaters, coaches and judges, ensuring language is not a barrier to access. Dee was added as a new division for the first time to the udnc in 2025 and is also a critical avenue to increase overall access and involvement in debate across the network. Over the last five years, dee programming has grown from two leagues to nine.
$406,055 spentof which $273,350 as grants31% of program spendingNaudl fellow: the naudl fellows internship is a scalable (virtual) workplace skills/mentorship program for qualified urban debate alums (at least two years of college completed). Projects engage fellows in multiple roles and provide an opportunity to lead an initiative, function of process with naudl or a league. Naudl senior staff provided ongoing oversight, coaching and assessment. Additionally, group roundtables are hosted (via zoom), featuring professional volunteers, in the widely-accepted eight competencies for career-readiness. In 2025, we had 8 fellows internships and spent $50,000. Additionally in fy25, naudl released a restricted grant of $20,000 to support the naudl fellow program through the alumni success program and scholarships/academic support for urban debaters or debaters of extreme financial need. Naudl has been trying to maximize the academic and career success of the students we have been serving in the manner which creates the most benefit for the largest number of students.
$70,000 spent5% of program spending"I resolve" seeks to showcase the power of debate for a public audience while exploring some of the most pressing issues in our society. Its value is in the perspective, voice and values of the next generation of leaders: high school debaters. The 90-minute programs are centered around student arguments and subsequent feedback, discussion, and q&a via a panel of distinguished civic and community leaders. Presenters are joined by an audience of student peers, school district and league leaders, naudl and league donors, partners, and debate champions. In fy25, we had I resolve events in the following locations: silicon valley/bay area, dallas and washington dc. Sports debate groundbreaking series uses sports topics and the leagues, rules, and institutions of the sports industry, as a framework to spark interest in debate and accelerate recruitment. It also urges students to research, develop, and advocate for solutions around these issues, enhancing civic education while also introducing high school students to career pathways in sports and sports media. Sports debate was piloted in collaboration with the tulsa debate league in april 2025.
$68,348 spentof which $68,348 as grants5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,308,031.
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 $1.5M to $3.1M (+115%).
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.
102% of NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Rhonda Haynes
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $194k → $802k.
16 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 79% 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 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
82% 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 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 36% · 2019 47% · 2020 45% · 2021 22% · 2022 66% · 2023 62% — 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
38% of NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
79% of NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES'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 $1.0M that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.0M 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
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES is better cushioned 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
Organizations like NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES
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
45%
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 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES: 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 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES?
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES (Illinois) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,999,751 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,222,610). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $4,999,751 in grants to NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $2,222,610 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES 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 38 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