Illinois · Nonprofit
PROJECT EXPLORATION
PROJECT EXPLORATION (Illinois) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,229,475 to it, the largest being Motorola Solutions Foundation ($560,749). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $-61153
What Project Exploration does
Mission
Project Exploration creates transformative learning opportunities for youth underrepresented in the sciences -- particularly students of color and girls -- by equipping them with the skills, practices, and mindset needed for a lifelong pursuit of learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Project Exploration's youth-science pathway (ysp) programs provide students k-12 with hands-on stem learning opportunities through afterschool, school-break, summer, school-based, and community-based programs. Youth participate in activities focused on science, technology, engineering, and math while building confidence, teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership skills. Programs are designed to expose students to stem careers, connect them with mentors, and support long-term interest and engagement in stem learning.
$2,100,525 spent90% of program spendingProject Exploration's community ecosystem work brings together schools, community organizations, families, youth, and local partners to create safe, supportive, and engaging opportunities for young people. Through community events, neighborhood partnerships, youth engagement activities, and collaborative planning, this work helps increase access to resources, strengthen relationships across the community, and support positive outcomes for youth and families.
Project Exploration's stem ecosystem work focuses on building partnerships and collaboration across schools, nonprofits, businesses, higher education institutions, and public agencies to expand access to quality stem learning opportunities for youth. This work includes convening partners, sharing resources and best practices, supporting collaborative initiatives, and helping strengthen the overall stem learning landscape across chicago communities.
Spring break science camp this weeklong program immerses pe students in the expertise and culture of a stem-based company or institution. Past partners have included: tata consultancy services, which led activities in coding and robotics; and motorola mobility, which paired girls from s4s with a diverse group of professional women. Environmental adventurers (ea) ea is aimed at engaging diverse, urban youth in the environmental sciences, biology, anatomy, and zoology subjects to develop skills in research in a meaningful and hands-on way. The participants involved in the program will do real scientific and environmental work with other participants while learning how to develop a research question to understand the importance of our environment. School-based programs - school-based programs are designed to provide stem programming for students at their home school. Project Exploration has identified communities within the west and near west side, far south, south, and southwest side of chicago as program service areas. These communities reflect areas that have limited to no robust stem learning opportunities. Pe partners with local community-based organizations or works directly…
$223,468 spent10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,323,993.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $523k to $858k (+64%).
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: 2018 26% · 2019 15% · 2020 8% · 2021 21% · 2022 25% · 2023 26% · 2024 75% · 2025 64%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of PROJECT EXPLORATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Timothy Kolschowsky
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $41k → $193k.
10 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 PROJECT EXPLORATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
PROJECT EXPLORATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
34% 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 PROJECT EXPLORATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 40% · 2019 74% · 2020 35% · 2021 38% · 2022 31% · 2023 16% — 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
32% of PROJECT EXPLORATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
91% of PROJECT EXPLORATION's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $494k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
PROJECT EXPLORATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PROJECT EXPLORATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $300k on record.
- National Science Foundation$300k
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 PROJECT EXPLORATION
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 PROJECT EXPLORATION: 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 PROJECT EXPLORATION?
- PROJECT EXPLORATION (Illinois) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,229,475 to it, the largest being Motorola Solutions Foundation ($560,749). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROJECT EXPLORATION have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $2,229,475 in grants to PROJECT EXPLORATION, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROJECT EXPLORATION?
- Motorola Solutions Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $560,749 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROJECT EXPLORATION 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 Project Exploration →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 43 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