01
Food & Essentials
Groceries, household basics, and hygiene items are where financial pressure shows up first. We focus on getting essentials into homes with dignity, without paperwork that makes people feel like applicants.
Chicago, Illinois · Helping Together
Neighbors are the most reliable safety net a city has.
Charity for All works to connect Chicago neighbors with practical support, caring relationships, and opportunities to thrive.
501(c)(3) public charity EIN 45-5531363 Exempt since April 23, 2012
Who we are
A small Chicago charity built around dependable, human-sized help.
Charity for All is a nonprofit corporation based in Chicago and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Our work is organized around a simple belief: the difference between a hard month and a crisis is often a neighbor who shows up.
We are intentionally transparent about our size and our stage. We file the IRS Form 990-N annual electronic notice, which is the filing available to organizations with gross receipts of not more than $50,000. That tells you something honest and useful: this is a lean organization where every gift, hour, and introduction is consequential.
Focus areas
Three areas where a neighbor showing up changes the week.
These are the focus areas that shape our planning and our conversations across Chicago. They describe the direction of our work rather than a catalog of completed results.
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Youth & Family Support
Young people do better when a caring adult is consistently present. We focus on safe places to learn, create, and be encouraged, and on practical help for the families around them.
03
Community Connection
Isolation makes every other hardship heavier. We focus on gatherings, check-ins, and volunteer relationships that turn a block of strangers into people who notice one another.
Verified organizational facts
The details you should be able to check before you trust us.
Legal name
Charity for All
A nonprofit corporation operating in Chicago, Illinois.
Employer Identification Number
45-5531363
Use this EIN to look us up in IRS records.
Federal tax status
501(c)(3) public charity
Classified under IRC section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi).
Exemption effective
April 23, 2012
Status is active and has not been terminated.
Our most recent annual filing is the 2025 Form 990-N (e-Postcard) for organizations with gross receipts of not more than $50,000. Our accounting period ends December 31. See financials and transparency.
How we work
Fewer promises. More follow-through.
Plenty of organizations describe impact before it exists. We would rather describe our commitments clearly, then let our filings and our updates show what actually happened.
- Say only what is verified. If we have not measured it, you will not see it presented as a statistic on this website.
- Keep the barrier low. Help should not require a complicated application or an uncomfortable conversation.
- Respect the neighbor. People receiving support are participants in their own lives, not case studies.
- Stay accountable in public. Our EIN, exemption status, and annual filing are published so anyone can check them.
Three ways to help
Choose the contribution that fits your life right now.
At our size, individual decisions are not symbolic. A single recurring gift or a reliable volunteer changes what we are able to plan for.
Give
Contributions to Charity for All are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Online processing is being prepared; today we accept gifts by mail and by arrangement.
Volunteer
Tell us the hours you can offer and the skills you bring. We are building volunteer roles that are specific, scheduled, and genuinely useful rather than improvised.
Connect us
Introductions matter as much as money. If you know a congregation, employer, school, or block club that wants to help neighbors, put us in the same room.
Latest updates
Organizational news, written plainly.
These are updates from us about how the organization is being built. They are not press coverage, and we do not republish claims we cannot support.
Our commitment to transparency, and what we publish
Why we publish our EIN, exemption date, and filing type before we publish anything about impact.
Read the update
How we chose our three focus areas
Food and essentials, youth and family support, and community connection, and the reasoning behind each.
Read the update
How to verify us before you give
A short, practical guide to checking any American charity, including this one, using public IRS tools.
Read the updatePractical resources
Helping well takes more than good intentions.
Explore plain-language guides for volunteers, donors, and neighbors who want their time and generosity to be genuinely useful.
How to start a neighborhood essentials drive
Collect what neighbors actually need while protecting dignity and avoiding waste.
Seven meaningful ways to volunteer in Chicago
Match your real schedule and skills to work a community organization can rely on.
What makes a nonprofit trustworthy?
Learn which details can be verified and how public records help you give confidently.
Accountability
“A charity should be easy to check. Ours is: one EIN, one public exemption record, one annual filing, and no numbers on this website that we cannot support.”
Questions
Straight answers before you get involved.
Yes. Charity for All is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity, classified under Internal Revenue Code section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi). Our exemption is effective April 23, 2012, and our EIN is 45-5531363. Our IRS status is active and has not been terminated.
Contributions to a 501(c)(3) public charity are generally tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. We are not able to give tax advice, so please consult your own tax professional about your specific situation and keep your own records of any gift.
Not yet. Online donation processing is being prepared, and we will not publish a checkout that does not work. In the meantime, the donate page explains how to send a gift by mail or arrange one directly with us.
Because unverified numbers are the easiest thing in the world to publish and the hardest thing to walk back. We publish what we can substantiate: our legal status, our filings, our focus areas, and our plans. As measured results become available, they will appear here with the method behind them.
Help us keep showing up.
Whether you give, volunteer, or make an introduction, you are helping a Chicago neighbor get through a difficult week with their dignity intact.