The Monroe Foundation
Legal name: Monroe Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 363787503
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2010
- Location
- Hillside, IL, USA
- Phone
- 773-315-9720
- Rating
- 60
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religion Related N.E.C.
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $130,600
- Expenses
- $132,439
- Assets
- $136,853
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Otis Monroe (President)
People named in this filing
- Paul Labonne (Chairman)
- Otis Monroe (President)
- Jurelene Rigsby (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Monroe Foundation is a publicly supported not-for-profit community and enterprise development intermediary. We seek to educate, link, and fund community development projects within low-income communities in the State of Illinois. The foundation supports small business start-ups and financing through lending partnerships. Our current supporters are PNC Bank and Marquette Bank. We also provide small business development seminars through the small business development “Boot Camp” Program, funded by grants.
What it reported doing in 2025
Get Cleared reentry initiative to assist justice-involved individuals and their families with record expungement, workforce development, financial literacy, and housing support. 102 participants enrolled in the Get Cleared initiative, completing a financial literacy curriculum. 400 individuals participated in 3 workforce sessions with PLCCA. 175 participants gained employment. 75 individuals completed certification training. 27 participants established new lines of credit. 22 maintained six-month budgets and increased savings. 11 participants launched small businesses.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 50
- Transparency & Controls: 73
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 49.8%; rating input score 50
- Program expense ratio: 49.1%; rating input score 49
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.4%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.03; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -20.7% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.7% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 49.8% of revenue deployed · 49.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $65K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 50/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 49/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.