Illinois · Nonprofit
THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION
THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION (Illinois) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,623,651 to it, the largest being NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES ($242,794). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $264k
What The Chicago Debate Commission does
Mission
Chicago debates' mission is to advance the educational achievement, community contributions, and life success of chicago's youth through the transformative power of academic debate. Chicago debates envisions a world in which chicago's youth are empowered to find their voices, succeed in college, and become community leaders.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Chicago debates manages and provides debate programming in chicago public middle and high schools, trains and supports teachers and coaches, and coordinates and conducts tournaments.
$904,448 spent$69,594 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $904,448.
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 2018 to 2019, from $979k to $713k (−27%).
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 12% · 2018 24% · 2019 32% · 2020 34% · 2021 36% · 2022 27% · 2023 31% · 2024 32% · 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
104% of THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION’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
Anthony Bolden
Executive director
Board chair
Eli Kay-Oliphant
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $146k → $200k.
8 of 30 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 THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION’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
THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% 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
39% 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 THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 50% · 2019 55% · 2020 36% · 2021 25% · 2022 19% · 2023 25% — 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
46% of THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
74% of THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $356k 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
THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION
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
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION: 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 THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION?
- THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION (Illinois) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,623,651 to it, the largest being NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES ($242,794). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $1,623,651 in grants to THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION?
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES is the largest funder on record, with $242,794 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CHICAGO DEBATE COMMISSION 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 Chicago Debate Commission →
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 30 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