Bright Promises Foundation
Chicago, IL · EIN 36-2182047. Reported 73 grants totalling $1,733,100 to 47 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Bright Promises Foundation, the IRS classifies it under animal welfare rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE D200) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 47 distinct organizations, with 6% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 29% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,800 and $40,000; the smallest was $6,500 and the largest $105,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enlace Chicago | Chicago, IL | $111,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Alternatives Incorporated | Chicago, IL | $102,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Arab American Action Network | Chicago, IL | $84,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Chicago Freedom School | Chicago, IL | $84,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Girls Inc of Chicago | Chicago, IL | $84,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Logan Square Neighborhood Assoc Inc | Chicago, IL | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Vocel Viewing Our Children As Emerging Leaders Nfp | Chicago, IL | $52,300 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| A Long Walk Home | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| B U I L D Incorporated | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gads Hill Center | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Northwest Side Housing Center | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Project Vision Inc | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Alianza Leadership Institute | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Chicago Youth Programs Inc | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kuumba Lynx | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Love Unity & Values Institute | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| New Community Outreach | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northwestern University Settlement | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Palenque Lsna | Union City, NJ | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ucan | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Unique Center for Athletes of All Needs | Sandpoint, ID | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Chicago Commons Association | Chicago, IL | $38,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Christopher House | Chicago, IL | $38,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Illinois Afterschool Network | Springfield, IL | $37,900 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Onward Neighborhood House | Chicago, IL | $31,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Changing Children's World's Foundation | Geneva, IL | $30,400 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Chicago Childrens Advocacy Center | Chicago, IL | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Tuesdays Child | Chicago, IL | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| A House in Austin Nfp | Chicago, IL | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Chicago Youth Centers | Chicago, IL | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Childrens Place Association | Chicago, IL | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Concordia Place | Chicago, IL | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Trinity United Church of Christ Child Care Centers Inc | Chicago, IL | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Equip for Equality Inc | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Firebird Community Arts | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Humanity Rising Inc | Lake Zurich, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Storycatchers Theater | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Roots Initiative | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Theatre Y | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Breakthrough Urban Ministries Inc | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Childrens Home & Aid Society Foundation | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Family Focus | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Illinois Action for Children | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Legacy | Matteson, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Primo Center for Women and Children | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Childrens Home & Aid Society of Illinois | Chicago, IL | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Youth Network Council | Chicago, IL | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
19 of 47 (40%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Enlace Chicago
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING HOME CARE - Chicago Freedom School
HEALING, LEADING, CHANGING - SUPPORTING YOUTH TO ADDRESS TRAUMA - Changing Children's World's Foundation
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING AT HOME-COLLABORATION ACTION PROJECT - Storycatchers Theater
FAIRNESS, ACCESS, INCLUSION, AND RESILIENCY INITIATIVE - A House in Austin Nfp
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM - Vocel
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING AT HOME CARE PROGRAM
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 35 of 47 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | $453,000 | $15,000 |
| 2022 | 19 | $382,100 | $15,000 |
| 2023 | 23 | $531,000 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 14 | $367,000 | $30,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
95% of its giving went to organizations in Illinois. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $15,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Illinois.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Bright Promises Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 200 W Madison St 300, Chicago, IL, 60606.
EIN 36-2182047 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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