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Illinois · Nonprofit

Working Bikes

Working Bikes (Illinois) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $616,772 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($148,994). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.8M
Funders on record
38
Grants received
$617k
Net assets
$1.7M
21/38 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 12%
01What it does

What Working Bikes does

Mission

Working Bikes acquires donated or discarded bicycles and gives those bicycles new homes. The organization donates bicycles internationally; fixes bicycles to donate and sell locally; and educates the public in bicycle repair, safety and reuse, while supporting healthy cycling.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. In 2025, Working Bikes collected 12,787 used bicycles with the help of many bike collection events, often in conjunction with municipally supported recycling fairs, and provided information on safe riding, basic bike repair, and recycling at dozens of community events. Countless individuals and entities including bike shops, property companies and police departments were donation drop off" partners for unwanted bicycles to be repurposed by Working Bikes. Hundreds of volunteers donated thousands of hours to Working Bikes in 2025 and facilitated the donation of 9,469 bikes (18 shipping containers) of used bicycles to our international partners in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America. Volunteers and staff also repaired and distributed 967 bicycles to local Chicago organizations and individuals and donated 694 bikes to partners around the Midwest, who repaired the bikes and distributed them to their communities. Working Bikes also helped the City of Chicago's Bike Chicago effort with bicycle assembly, repair, transportation, and distribution.

    $1,441,814 spent$939,008 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,441,814.

02The 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 ($893k) Expenses 100 ($917k) Net assets 100 ($951k)2018 Revenue 110 ($986k) Expenses 93 ($855k) Net assets 114 ($1.1M)2019 Revenue 108 ($961k) Expenses 109 ($1.0M) Net assets 109 ($1.0M)2020 Revenue 106 ($950k) Expenses 92 ($847k) Net assets 120 ($1.1M)2021 Revenue 131 ($1.2M) Expenses 114 ($1.0M) Net assets 134 ($1.3M)2022 Revenue 140 ($1.2M) Expenses 126 ($1.2M) Net assets 144 ($1.4M)2023 Revenue 174 ($1.6M) Expenses 162 ($1.5M) Net assets 151 ($1.4M)2024 Revenue 167 ($1.5M) Expenses 170 ($1.6M) Net assets 144 ($1.4M)2025 Revenue 206 ($1.8M) Expenses 168 ($1.5M) Net assets 176 ($1.7M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (206)Expenses (168)Net assets (176)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 $1.5M to $1.8M (+24%).

$1.0M
$1.1M
$1.0M
$1.1M
$1.3M
$1.4M
$1.5M
$1.8M
$1.9M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

49% of Working Bikes’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,680 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$24k
’17
$131k
’18
−$40k
’19
$103k
’20
$131k
’21
$93k
’22
$64k
’23
−$64k
’24
$307k
’25
4.9
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.

Chief executive

Trevor Clarke

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed9910121214131415
Joined·+1+5+2+0+2+2+5+5
No longer listed·14000344
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $22k → $97k.

11 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 Working Bikes’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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

Working Bikes has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

57% 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 Working Bikes.

24%
largest funder
45%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 34% · 2019 68% · 2020 34% · 2021 42% · 2022 34% · 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

46% of Working Bikes's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Working Bikes draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 11 states in all.

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
OR
CA
NE
DE
TN
FL

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. $170k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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

Working Bikes runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 798 international nonprofits its size.

Operating margin17% · above the median
Months of reserve4.9mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Working Bikes

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

94% of spending goes to programs.

Program 94%Management 6%Fundraising 0%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

99%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Working Bikes: 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 Working Bikes?
Working Bikes (Illinois) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $616,772 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($148,994). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Working Bikes have?
IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $616,772 in grants to Working Bikes, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Working Bikes?
MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $148,994 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Working Bikes 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 Working Bikes →

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 38 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