Illinois · Nonprofit
SPARK PROGRAM INC
SPARK PROGRAM INC (Illinois) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,427,219 to it, the largest being WEITZ FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,203,584). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundationshared funders
- Best Portion Foundationportfolio match
- The Ten Talents Foundation Ltdportfolio match
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.
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 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 5% · 2020 8% · 2021 21% · 2022 24% · 2023 54%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 24 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $563k → $324k.
15 of 76 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $113k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Spark Program Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money SPARK PROGRAM INC raised.
From the IRS filings of SPARK PROGRAM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 76 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
SPARK PROGRAM INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
36% 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 SPARK PROGRAM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 23% · 2019 34% · 2020 26% · 2021 28% · 2022 42% · 2023 77% — 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
19% of SPARK PROGRAM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
SPARK PROGRAM INC draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 76 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 86 organizations that share your funders
- Best Portion Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Ten Talents Foundation Ltdportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Jacob Beidler & Deborah Witzburg Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Drw Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Cme Group Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Anne & Mead Montgomery Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- John E & Jeanne T Hughes Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Hoban Family Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust Xxxxx1008portfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Invest for Kids Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Ahmanson Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 112 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like SPARK PROGRAM INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 SPARK PROGRAM 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds SPARK PROGRAM INC?
- SPARK PROGRAM INC (Illinois) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,427,219 to it, the largest being WEITZ FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,203,584). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SPARK PROGRAM INC have?
- IRS filings report 76 organizations giving $4,427,219 in grants to SPARK PROGRAM INC, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPARK PROGRAM INC?
- WEITZ FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,203,584 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPARK PROGRAM 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 76funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing