Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2025. IRS ruling in Feb 2001.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
94 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
Something off? Claim to add context
Who runs it and what they're paid
11 people listed on the 990; $199K paid to officers and key staff.
Raul Botello’s $122K as Co Executive Director is at the 31st percentile of top reported officer pay among 2832 $1–10M community development nonprofits. Peer set: organizations in the same NTEE major field of work and revenue-size band, compared on each org’s own highest-paid officer/key-employee, from Form 990 Part VII / 990-PF Part VIII. Descriptive placement, not a verdict on whether the pay is appropriate.
Compensation history total reportable pay by year · 6 named individuals · Part VII
| Name | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | FY2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raul Botello | $122,080 | $118,724 | $111,986 | $103,137 | $97,402 | $94,670 |
| Jennifer Arwade | $114,889 | $111,534 | $102,915 | $94,066 | $88,883 | $94,670 |
| Roxanne Smith | $6,500 | $6,000 | $2,500 | — | $7,710 | $6,244 |
| Dakota Burnett | — | — | — | — | $6,423 | — |
| Maria Elena Sifuentes | — | — | — | — | $2,890 | $2,890 |
| Deshawn Smith | — | — | — | $400 | — | $200 |
Total reportable compensation (Form 990 Part VII column D / Schedule J column E) by filing year, matched by name within this organization. The Schedule J base / bonus / deferred breakdown is not parsed into this dataset.
See Communities United executive salaries →Questions the 990 asks
The form asks each of these directly. These are the filed answers.
- Family or business ties among officersPt VI · Ln 2Yes
- Top official's pay set by an independent reviewPt VI · Ln 15aYes
Programs and updates
Unites neighbors to preserve affordable housing, improve education, healthcare, and immigrant rights.
Questions for Communities United
Your first name shows with your question. Communities United answers here, for everyone.
Voices of youth in chicago education ("voyce") and the safe schools consortium: voyce is a citywide youth organizing collaboration that was formed to address the school to prison pipeline. Voyce defines its efforts as student-led, based on the core belief that the recipients of public education, the students themselves, need to be at the…
Education Organizing
The organization's education organizing is centered around the development of parent leadership to impact issues of school improvement and education justice such as resources for neighborhood schools, ensuring all students are on a path to college, overcrowding relief, and more.
Bikes N'Roses
Bikes n' roses is a youth-led bicycle cooperative that works to promote youth leadership, entrepreneurship, bike safety, and bike advocacy.
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2020 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY20 | End FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $732K | $1.3M |
| Land, buildings, equipmentLn 10c | $2K | $5K |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $1.4M | $2.1M |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $36K | $61K |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $1.4M | $2.1M |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $16K | $16K | ||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $199K | $151K | $24K | $24K |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $901K | $877K | $20K | $4K |
| Other employee benefitsLn 9 | $198K | $186K | $7K | $5K |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $84K | $79K | $3K | $2K |
| Legal feesLn 11b | $652 | $634 | $11 | $7 |
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $35K | $34K | $582 | $371 |
| Other fees for servicesLn 11g | $154K | $150K | $3K | $2K |
| Office expensesLn 13 | $54K | $51K | $1K | $929 |
| OccupancyLn 16 | $89K | $87K | $1K | $910 |
| TravelLn 17 | $27K | $27K | $128 | $82 |
| Conferences, conventions and meetingsLn 19 | $53K | $53K | $248 | $158 |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $2K | $2K | $84 | $54 |
| InsuranceLn 23 | $15K | $14K | $464 | $296 |
| Other expenses (24a–d)Ln 24 | $108K | $89K | $11K | $7K |
| All other expensesLn 24e | $35K | $29K | $4K | $2K |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $2.0M | $1.8M | $76K | $48K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 LatestFiled with the IRS Aug 25, 2026 | $1.7M | $3.2M | −$1.5M | $9.6M | 990 PDF |
| FY2024Filed with the IRS Sep 11, 2025 | $3.8M | $3.7M | $55K | $11.1M | 990 PDF |
| FY2023Filed with the IRS Oct 11, 2024 | $2.6M | $3.6M | −$965K | $11.1M | 990 PDF |
| FY2022Filed with the IRS Nov 15, 2023 | $10.4M | $3.0M | $7.5M | $10.0M | 990 PDF |
| FY2021Filed with the IRS Sep 6, 2022 | $2.8M | $2.3M | $468K | $2.5M | 990 PDF |
| FY2020 ViewingFiled with the IRS Oct 29, 2021 | $2.7M | $2.0M | $705K | $2.1M | 990 PDF |
Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2020 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $2,674,758 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 9 of 9 board members independent, 1 to look at
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $2,674,758 across 6 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $1,969,548 across 16 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $2,126,220 assets, 15 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $2,065,056 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2020 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
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