Illinois · Nonprofit
SKILLS FOR CHICAGO
SKILLS FOR CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,421,914 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($5,340,000). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 81
- Grants received
- $24M
- Net assets
- $3.8M
What Skills for Chicago does
Mission
See schedule othe mission of skills is to stand as a life-changing employment resource connecting underrepresented job seekers to employers with opportunities across industries. We do this by building multi-level, trusted relationships with our employer partners to break down barriers in the hiring process and connect them to overlooked talent. We work with community partners to prepare unemployed talent for jobs and to provide supportive services to ensure those placed can stay in those jobs. The vast majority of skills' candidates come from disinvested communities on the south and west sides of chicago, which experience unemployment rates 3-5x higher than the national average. Skills colocates in offices in south, west and southwest side neighborhoods to make its services convenient to job seekers and to maintain a close pulse on community needs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Placements: the mission of skills is to stand as a life-changing employment resource connecting underrepresented job seekers to employers with opportunities across industries. We do this by building multi-level, trusted relationships with our employer partners to break down barriers in the hiring process and connect them to overlooked talent. We work with community partners to prepare unemployed talent for jobs and to provide supportive services to ensure those placed can stay in those jobs. The vast majority of skills' candidates come from disinvested communities on the south and west sides of chicago, which experience unemployment rates 3-5x higher than the national average. Skills co-locates in offices in south, west and southwest side neighborhoods to make its services convenient to job seekers and to maintain a close pulse on community needs.
$4,581,787 spent$133,075 earned by the program69% of program spendingNational expansion: national expansion, also known as skills for america's future, is an initiative of skills that is focused on replicating skills' model in target cities across the country. Skills has launched affiliates in rhode island, phoenix, and atlanta with more to roll out in 2025.
$1,364,467 spent21% of program spendingCredential and career coaching: credential and career coaching (formerly known as career access) program targets unemployed and underemployed participants seeking middle-skill roles, for which they may need an industry-recognized credential including - licenses, certificates, and certifications. This program includes: credential connection - skills works with credentialing partners to recruit individuals who are at or near completion of training, provides individualized job seeker support, and places them into a role aligned with their training. Career pathways - skills provides more intensive support and engages the job seeker before they begin their education and training journey. Through career pathways, skills helps jobseekers enroll in classes with education partners and places them into entry-level roles where they can earn income and gain work experience, ultimately connecting them to a middle-skill job opportunity as they advance or complete education and/or training.
$370,569 spent6% of program spendingCommunity based organization collective:the cbo collective (cboc) is a workforce development initiative co-founded by cara collective and skills in 2021. This collaborative of 16 workforce development organizations worked to better connect hiring demand with black and brown talent through a collective workforce development approach. The cboc ended in january 2025. The board of directors determined that the cboc had fulfilled its mission, and the collaboration would continue through existing programs.
$296,667 spent4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,613,490.
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 2022 to 2023, from $4.3M to $7.5M (+75%).
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 35% · 2018 42% · 2019 35% · 2020 31% · 2021 20% · 2022 18% · 2023 11% · 2024 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of SKILLS FOR CHICAGO’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (16% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Bridget Altenburg
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Manika Turnbull
Director/chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 38 funders, grant income rose $2.1M → $7.2M.
17 of 81 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 SKILLS FOR CHICAGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 81 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
SKILLS FOR CHICAGO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
61% 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 SKILLS FOR CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 31% · 2019 32% · 2020 35% · 2021 27% · 2022 25% · 2023 70% — 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
53% of SKILLS FOR CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
SKILLS FOR CHICAGO draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
SKILLS FOR CHICAGO's funding base is broadening — from 9 funders to 38 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,551 employment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like SKILLS FOR CHICAGO
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 SKILLS FOR CHICAGO: 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 SKILLS FOR CHICAGO?
- SKILLS FOR CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,421,914 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($5,340,000). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SKILLS FOR CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 81 organizations giving $24,421,914 in grants to SKILLS FOR CHICAGO, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SKILLS FOR CHICAGO?
- GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,340,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SKILLS FOR CHICAGO 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 81 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