Illinois · Nonprofit
TRUENU
TRUENU (Illinois) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,030,593 to it, the largest being KARIN BAIN AND JOHN KUKRAL FOUNDATION ($1,300,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $0
What Truenu does
Mission
Truenu energizes student-athletes, charities, and northwestern university supporters to positively impact our community and our world. Truenu is a unique platform that enables community-minded nu student- athletes to do well while doing good through nil partnerships. We connect local charities with wildcats from all varsity programs - putting their time, talents and influence to work to help our community thrive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Nil appearance fees paid to student athletes
$9,379,614 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $9,379,614.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2024 to 2025, from $6.9M to $0 (−100%).
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.
96% of TRUENU’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
9 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 TRUENU’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
TRUENU leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
“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
TRUENU draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 5 states in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $433k 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
TRUENU has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like TRUENU
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 TRUENU: 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 TRUENU?
- TRUENU (Illinois) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,030,593 to it, the largest being KARIN BAIN AND JOHN KUKRAL FOUNDATION ($1,300,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TRUENU have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $2,030,593 in grants to TRUENU, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TRUENU?
- KARIN BAIN AND JOHN KUKRAL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TRUENU 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 Truenu →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 15 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