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Illinois · Nonprofit

TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC

TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,459,235 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($618,050). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$2.3M
Revenue FY2024
34
Funders on record
$3.5M
Grants received
$871k
Net assets
16/34 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 56%

Against its field

TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin20% · above the median
Months of reserve5.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

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.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($595k) Expenses 100 ($571k) Net assets 100 ($13k)2018 Revenue 111 ($661k) Expenses 117 ($667k) Net assets 56 ($7k)2019 Revenue 112 ($666k) Expenses 106 ($606k) Net assets 519 ($67k)2020 Revenue 134 ($798k) Expenses 107 ($611k) Net assets 1974 ($253k)2021 Revenue 191 ($1.1M) Expenses 153 ($877k) Net assets 3518 ($451k)2022 Revenue 126 ($749k) Expenses 170 ($969k) Net assets 1804 ($231k)2023 Revenue 260 ($1.5M) Expenses 235 ($1.3M) Net assets 3604 ($462k)2024 Revenue 387 ($2.3M) Expenses 324 ($1.8M) Net assets 6795 ($871k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (387)Expenses (324)Net assets (6795)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 17% · 2018 19% · 2019 19% · 2020 16% · 2021 22% · 2022 17% · 2023 44% · 2024 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

61% of TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,374 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$23k
17
$6k
18
$59k
19
$187k
20
$261k
21
$220k
22
$206k
23
$452k
24
5.1
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $67k → $868k.

8 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)49% 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 TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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

TRUE STAR FOUNDATION 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

68% 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 TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC.

18%
largest funder
38%
top three
~11
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 75% · 2018 61% · 2019 73% · 2020 24% · 2021 35% · 2022 27% · 2023 23%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

29% of TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

98% of TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

MN
IL
NY
OH
CA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

03Its place in the field

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 34 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

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 TRUE STAR FOUNDATION 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

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

95% of spending goes to programs.

Program 95%Management 5%Fundraising 0%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

100%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TRUE STAR FOUNDATION 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC?
TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,459,235 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($618,050). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC have?
IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $3,459,235 in grants to TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TRUE STAR FOUNDATION INC?
The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $618,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TRUE STAR FOUNDATION 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 34funders 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