Illinois · Nonprofit
Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders
Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders (Illinois) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,553,930 to it, the largest being A Better Chicago ($1,125,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 63
- Grants received
- $7.6M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders does
Mission
VOCEL's mission is to help ensure every child has the foundation to learn, grow and lead. We provide two-generation early childhood education programming for young children, families and schools in under-resourced communities aiming to support early brain development and build foundation for academic and life success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Child Parent Academy is a multi-generational and fully integrated preschool readiness and parent support program for young children (age 0 - 5) and their parents (or caregiver). The VOCEL Child Parent Academy fosters and strengthens skills children will need to succeed inside and outside the classroom. The program is offered in 18 sites on Chicago west and south side neighborhoods.
$670,745 spentof which $34,986 as grants$22,353 earned by the program42% of program spendingBuilding Early Learning Leaders (BELL) is a program focused on coaching school leaders and helping them to establish their vision for Pre-K learning excellence in their schools.
$302,613 spent19% of program spendingThe EETC Fellowship, helps Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers in Chicago Public Schools create action plans to implement key priorities for improvement at their schools, bolstered by a community of support in the fellowship cohort.
$326,420 spent20% of program spendingPowered by VOCEL , is similar to The Child Parent Academy, Powered by VOCEL is offered at nine school sites in Chicago. Rather than being led by VOCEL staff members, Powered by VOCEL is led by parent and caregiver leaders from within the school community, who are trained and supported by VOCEL staff.
$306,618 spent19% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,606,396.
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.
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 $2.2M to $3.6M (+61%).
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: 2021 9% · 2022 7% · 2023 5% · 2025 86%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders’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. 2 of the last 8 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
Jessica Ilhardt
Executive Director
Board chair
Nick Scodro
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $71k → $1.8M.
12 of 63 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 63 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
Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
56% 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 Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 29% · 2019 41% · 2020 23% · 2021 29% · 2022 34% · 2023 34% — 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.
How long its funders stay
48% of Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
90% of Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M 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
Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders: 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 Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders?
- Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders (Illinois) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,553,930 to it, the largest being A Better Chicago ($1,125,000). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders have?
- IRS filings report 63 organizations giving $7,553,930 in grants to Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders?
- A Better Chicago is the largest funder on record, with $1,125,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders 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 Vocel Viewing our Children as Emerging Leaders →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 63 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing