GrantmakersIllinois

Carole Robertson Center for Learning

Chicago, IL · EIN 36-2882124. Reported 66 grants totalling $17.6M to 33 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

33organizations funded
$60,504median reported grant
$17.6Mgranted, 2020-2023
75%of grantees funded again the next year
64%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Carole Robertson Center for Learning, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P330) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 33 distinct organizations, with 64% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
  3. How much its list changes. 75% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $60,504. Half of what it reported fell between $35,786 and $110,058; the smallest was $8,790 and the largest $4,980,731. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
1 grant
$10,000 - $25,000
4 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
23 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
20 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
10 grants
$250,000 Or More
8 grants

24 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $4,069,404 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Metropolitan Family ServicesMerrionette Park, IL$11.3M332023
Erie Neighborhood HouseChicago, IL$1,772,739332023
House of Kidds ChildcareChicago, IL$719,054222023
Positive AttitudeBurlington, NC$503,634332023
Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere IncAtlanta, GA$387,470332023
Channings Childcare AcademyChicago, IL$267,816332023
House of Kidds ChildcareChicago, IL$219,501112021
Creative Child Care IncStockton, CA$206,948332023
Greater Rock Development CorporationChicago, IL$202,899332023
Sunrise Child Care IncWellman, IA$199,065332023
Scribbles DaycareChicago, IL$191,462222023
Lorissa Learning Lab LLCChicago, IL$180,235332023
Little Explorers DaycareMadison, WI$172,486332023
Tj's Heavenly Angels AcademyChicago, IL$137,812222023
Child's World Academic IncChicago, IL$137,433332023
Laughs and Giggles Children's AcademyChicago, IL$116,070112021
Little Space Daycare CorporationChicago, IL$115,635222023
Jumpstart for Young Children IncBoston, MA$107,666332023
4 Crosses Academy of Learning LtdChicago, IL$103,809222023
Angelica Scholars AcademyChicago, IL$82,426222023
Scribbles DaycareChicago, IL$62,978112021
Pearline Minto - Smiling Faces Home DaycareChicago, IL$56,728222023
Kids First Home Day Care IncChicago, IL$54,653222023
Tj's Heavenly Angels AcademyChicago, IL$51,827112021
Albany Park Community CenterChicago, IL$43,790222021
4 Crosses Academy of Learning LtdChicago, IL$36,968112021
The Magic Castle IncGeneva, IL$34,920112021
Joyful Steps Learning CenterChicago, IL$33,059112021
Kids First Home Day Care IncChicago, IL$31,437112021
Arco Iris Home Daycare LLCChicago, IL$29,360112023
Mis Pequenos ExploradoresChicago, IL$22,110112021
Angelic Scholars AcademyChicago, IL$13,950112021
Pearline Minto - Smiling Faces Home DaycareChicago, IL$13,604112021

21 of 33 (64%) 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.

It also reported 5 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 8 of 33 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.

Human Services
3 orgs
Youth Development
3 orgs
International Affairs
1 org
Education
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20201$35,000$35,000
202124$4,069,404$44,713
202220$7,307,551$79,205
202321$6,202,332$63,226

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

91% 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.

Illinois
$16.0M
North Carolina
$504K
Georgia
$387K
California
$207K
Iowa
$199K
Wisconsin
$172K
Massachusetts
$108K

Down to the city

Merrionette Park, IL
$11.3M
Chicago, IL
$4.7M
Burlington, NC
$504K
Atlanta, GA
$387K
Stockton, CA
$207K
Wellman, IA
$199K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund4 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc3 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc3 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc3 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program3 shared recipientsThe Chicago Community Trust2 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $60,504 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Illinois.
  4. 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

Foundations funding human services in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Carole Robertson Center for Learning's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 1111 S Western Ave B, Chicago, IL, 60612.

EIN 36-2882124 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

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