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Illinois · Nonprofit

VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY

VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,594 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($17,578). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$237k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$33k
Net assets
$130k
3/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 3%
01What it does

What Vanguard Gifted Academy does

Mission

The Academy operates an independent school for intellectually gifted and talented students. The Academys mission is to offer a challenging curriculum in a unique educational community that develops a students strengths, interests and potential for the future.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Academy provides an enriched learning environment needed to engage gifted children in their learning of social and emotional skills and traits for future success including collaboration, innovation, leadership, project planning and execution, problem-solving processes, and presentation of knowledge to an authentic audience.

    $238,723 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $238,723.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($257k) Expenses 100 ($186k) Net assets 100 ($54k)2019 Revenue 99 ($254k) Expenses 104 ($193k) Net assets 218 ($118k)2020 Revenue 131 ($336k) Expenses 142 ($265k) Net assets 353 ($191k)2021 Revenue 146 ($375k) Expenses 192 ($358k) Net assets 337 ($182k)2022 Revenue 167 ($429k) Expenses 215 ($401k) Net assets 379 ($205k)2023 Revenue 137 ($352k) Expenses 185 ($346k) Net assets 386 ($209k)2024 Revenue 93 ($240k) Expenses 157 ($293k) Net assets 300 ($162k)2025 Revenue 92 ($237k) Expenses 151 ($282k) Net assets 241 ($130k)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (92)Expenses (151)Net assets (241)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 2021 to 2022, from $1.2M to $865k (−26%).

$736k
$919k
$991k
$1.2M
$865k
$832k
$811k
$977k
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

28% of VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 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.

$70k
’18
$61k
’19
$71k
’20
$17k
’21
$28k
’22
$6k
’23
−$53k
’24
−$44k
’25
3.6
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.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed388787108
Joined·+5+0+2+1+1+3+3
No longer listed·0030205
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $500 → $11k.

4 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 5 of 6 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

VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

97% 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 VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY.

54%
largest funder
94%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 75% · 2021 100% · 2022 56% · 2023 98% — broadly stable.

“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

97% of VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY'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 $1k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 1 state.

FL

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

’19
’20
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $32k 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

VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $33k to it.

Operating margin−19% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve3.6mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY

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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 12%Fundraising 4%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY: 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY?
VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY (Illinois) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,594 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($17,578). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $32,594 in grants to VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY?
NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $17,578 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like VANGUARD GIFTED ACADEMY 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 Vanguard Gifted Academy →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 6 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