Illinois · Nonprofit
REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC
REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC (Illinois) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $454,597 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($370,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $455k
- Net assets
- $53k
What Redwood Schools Inc does
Mission
Redwood exists so that all students with literacy struggles can access their dreams. By cultivating hope and restoring confidence, we help students dramatically improve their literacy skills regardless of socio-economic background or learnes differences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The providing of literacy intervention through individual session tutoring, small group tutoring, a full time day school, and projects providing these same services to individuals from disadvantaged communities. Redwood uses the wilson reading system curriculum, employes teachers, learning disability specialists as contractors, and other qualified members of the chicago community.
$2,320,364 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,320,364.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $267k to $716k (+168%).
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: 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
5% of REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 1 of the last 5 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
Hillari Bishop
Board president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $35 → $123k.
4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC’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
REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 81% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 55% · 2023 81% — 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
14% of REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 30% 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
85% of REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC'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 $69k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $385k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC has grown faster 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 REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC: 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 REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC?
- REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC (Illinois) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $454,597 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($370,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $454,597 in grants to REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $370,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REDWOOD SCHOOLS INC 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 Redwood Schools →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 10 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