Illinois · Nonprofit
THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC
THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC (Illinois) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,348,281 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($415,850). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $768k
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $603k
What The Gray Matter Experience Inc does
Mission
The gray matter experience inspires, educates, and empowers the next generation of black changemakers by bridging entrepreneurial knowledge gap and driving positive community change.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The gray matter experience empowers young black people, ages 12-24, to disrupt the status quo, mobilize innovative ideas, and champion their communities. For the gray matter experience, entrepreneurship is not just a career. Since 2016, they've supported more than 2,000 young people through personal development, business education, and nurturing their commitment to social impact. Their programs offer a nationally-recognized curriculum, designed by black leaders, that cultivates the entrepreneurial mindset - an approach that embraces innovation, authentic leadership, and a proactive drive to solve challenges across all career paths.the gray matter experience's engaging tuition-free programs, national partnerships, and community of allies ensure that curious creators and budding visionaries are equipped with essential skills, relationships, and resources to become agents of change and thrive in a global economy.
$358,112 spent$55,463 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $358,112.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $536k to $823k (+54%).
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: 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
Britney Robbins
Founder and CEO
Board chair
Chika Umeadi
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 23 funders, grant income rose $10k → $569k.
13 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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 GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
47% 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 GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 45% · 2020 31% · 2021 28% · 2022 53% · 2023 27% — 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
36% of THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
94% of THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $944k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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 GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE 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
46% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE 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 THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC?
- THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC (Illinois) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,348,281 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($415,850). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $2,348,281 in grants to THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE INC?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $415,850 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE GRAY MATTER EXPERIENCE 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 Gray Matter Experience →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 52 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