Illinois · Nonprofit
THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION
THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION (Illinois) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,118,781 to it, the largest being Builders Vision Foundation ($925,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What The Experimental Station does
Mission
The Experimental Station was organized to promote, encourage and foster innovative educational and cultural initiatives of all genres, including but not limited to art and design, innovative educational models, food, and alternative media and journalism.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Link up illinois provides funding, training, and technical support to farmers markets food cooperatives, mobile markets, corner stores, and other venues selling locally grown produce to implement link match at their venues. Link match matches the value of snap/link purchases,allowing recipients to receive up to $25 of free fruits and vegetables per transaction at farmers markets and $5 per day in grocery settings.
$2,166,159 spentof which $1,485,767 as grants$107,300 earned by the program80% of program spendingThe 61st street farmers market was created in 2008 to bring healthy food and food education to the woodlawn community. A leader in illinois in serving a low-income population, the market accepts snap/illinois 'link', doubles the value of snap/link purchases with link match, and offers year-round at-market, in-school, after-school, and adult food education.
$266,440 spent$23,648 earned by the program10% of program spendingBlackstone bicycle works provides youth education in a bike shop setting. Blackstone bicycle works offers free mechanic training, free bicycles, internships, college and career advising, and college/vocational school scholarships.
$279,208 spent$82,015 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,711,807.
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 2020 to 2021, from $888k to $1.6M (+83%).
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: 2019 36% · 2020 11% · 2021 59% · 2022 78% · 2023 66% · 2024 73%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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
Constance Spreen
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $335k → $558k.
10 of 58 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.
From the IRS filings of THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION 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
41% 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 EXPERIMENTAL STATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 33% · 2019 34% · 2020 19% · 2021 24% · 2022 17% · 2023 45% — 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
42% of THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
73% of THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M 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 EXPERIMENTAL STATION has grown faster than half of the 4,206 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,206 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION
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 THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION: 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 EXPERIMENTAL STATION?
- THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION (Illinois) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,118,781 to it, the largest being Builders Vision Foundation ($925,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $4,118,781 in grants to THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION?
- Builders Vision Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $925,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION 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 2018–2024), and the filings of 58 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