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Illinois · Nonprofit

The Hope Center

The Hope Center (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $69,677 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($33,588). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$783k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$70k
Net assets
$493k
2/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 2%
01What it does

What The Hope Center does

Mission

The mission of The Hope Center is to help restore what is broken in our world, in our community, and in each of us.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Food Pantry - The Hope Center operates a food pantry where guests can expect to find a wide selection of fresh and shelf-stable items to keep their kitchens stocked, as well as herbs and veggies harvested weekly from our farm. We love to connect with pantry guests to find out how else The Hope Center can make a difference in their lives. The food pantry is open every Saturday and serves people throughout northern Illinois.

    $240,771 spent
    37% of program spending

  2. HOPE Farm sprouted from a simple idea: wouldn't it be wonderful if our food pantry could offer beautifully ripe, nutritious veggies and fruit? We knew the answer, so we got to work Thanks to a committed crew of volunteers, bushels of plump tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, leafy greens, and aromatic herbs are now being harvested weekly. Our growing, small-scale farm is built around a hydroponic greenhouse that lets us farm year-round, sunshine or snow. Outside, rows of raised beds are lush in the summer with soil-grown garden veggies and native prairie plants.

    $137,620 spent
    21% of program spending

  3. The Benevolence program assists individuals who find temporary financial hardship with basic needs such as rent or mortgage assistance, car repairs, medical needs, or other urgent living needs. Participants in the benevolence program go through a holistic intake process to assess the need and are required to participate in financial and budget training to receive assistance.

    $85,112 spentof which $22,612 as grants
    13% of program spending

  4. Additional services are offered by the ministry including: Hope Redemption, for individuals who have formerly been incarcerated will find an understanding, supportive group of people who have walked the path from prison to freedom and know how to replace barriers with opportunities. Through compassion, connection, and purpose-driven programs, Hope Redemption helps the formerly incarcerated step confidently into a bright new future.

    $50,040 spent
    8% of program spending

  5. Single Moms, or Thrive, a gathering place for single moms to lift each other up. On Tuesday evenings, women on similar journeys have a chance to share a meal and some candid conversation. Childcare is provided, which gives everyone time to rejuvenate while listening to a speaker, getting spiritual encouragement, or doing a craft together while sharing struggles and victories as single parents. Evenings are often filled with laughter, sometimes tears, and always inspiration to thrive! There is also a group for Spanish-speaking moms, led by a team of Spanish-speaking mentors.

    $44,896 spent
    7% of program spending

  6. Teen moms

    $26,631 spent
    4% of program spending

  7. Toy Store

    $22,944 spent
    4% of program spending

  8. Accessibility

    $15,620 spent
    2% of program spending

  9. Hope Legal

    $11,206 spent$540 earned by the program
    2% of program spending

  10. Senior Care

    $5,254 spent
    1% of program spending

  11. Repair

    $4,195 spent
    1% of program spending

  12. Racial Reconciliation

    $3,626 spent
    1% of program spending

  13. Marketplace

    $3,035 spent
    0% of program spending

  14. Hope Health

    $1,813 spent
    0% of program spending

  15. English as a Second Lanaguage

    $882 spent
    0% of program spending

  16. and Kylee's Closet

    $240 spent
    0% of program spending

The 16 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $653,885.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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.

100 = 20232023 Revenue 100 ($1.0M) Expenses 100 ($813k) Net assets 100 ($232k)2024 Revenue 104 ($1.1M) Expenses 92 ($750k) Net assets 241 ($560k)2025 Revenue 75 ($783k) Expenses 104 ($849k) Net assets 213 ($493k)
202320242025
Revenue (75)Expenses (104)Net assets (213)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $277k to $578k (+108%).

$277k
$578k
$524k
202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

101% of The Hope Center’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (91% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 23,870 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 3 reported years ran a deficit.

$232k
’23
$332k
’24
−$66k
’25
6.8
months of
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.

202320242025
Listed667
Joined·+1+1
No longer listed·10
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.

Funder
'23
'24*
'25*
'26*
total
funders
3
4
2
1

4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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 Hope Center’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 Hope Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

83% 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 Hope Center.

48%
largest funder
77%
top three
~3
effective funders

“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.

Where its funders are

83% of The Hope Center's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $12k that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from Illinois funders.

IL
NC

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $58k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

The Hope Center is better cushioned than half of the 13,062 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−8% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve6.8mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−13% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,062 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like The Hope Center

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

Compassionate Ministries Center of Hope84%Rockford Rescue Mission Ministries81%Nourishing Hope80%New Hope House Northwest D/B/A New Hope Community Food Pantry79%Hope of East Central Illinois Nfp79%Restoration Ministries Inc79%The Friendship Center78%Care for Real78%

Nationally

Hope Helps Inc84%Compassionate Ministries Center of Hope84%Hope Community Services Inc83%Hope Community Center Inc83%Hope Ministries of Baton Rouge82%Bay View Community Center of Milwaukee Inc81%Hope Women's Center Inc81%Hope Gospel Mission Inc81%
05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 14%Fundraising 9%

Governance

4
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

0%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • The Hope Collective · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Hope Center: 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.

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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 Hope Center?
The Hope Center (Illinois) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $69,677 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($33,588). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does The Hope Center have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $69,677 in grants to The Hope Center, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of The Hope Center?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $33,588 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like The Hope Center 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 Hope Center →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 7 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