Give money
One-time gifts, monthly giving, corporate grants, and sponsorship.
Support
Be a catalyst for change.
Individuals, companies, and organizations power this work three ways: with money, with time, and with the equipment, space, and expertise we would otherwise have to buy.
Every one of them puts a student in front of something they have never built before.
Give time
Mentoring, workshop teaching, and company volunteering days.
Give in kind
Equipment, software, lab space, transport, and professional services.
Partner with us
Multi-year commitments that combine all three.
Start from where you are
The route in looks different depending on whether you are giving as a person, a business, or an institution.
Individuals and families
Give once or monthly, mentor a student for a semester, donate usable equipment, or leave a gift in your will.
Most individual gifts arrive between $25 and $500, and they fund the day-to-day: kits, bus fare, snacks, and the staff who keep a room open on a Saturday.
Ways for individualsCompanies
Sponsor a program or lab, match your employees’ gifts, run a team volunteering day, open internship places, or donate surplus hardware and software licenses.
We provide impact reporting, logo placement, and employee-facing materials for commitments over $10,000.
Corporate partnershipFoundations and organizations
Fund a program area, co-design an initiative with our team, contribute lab or meeting space, or lend specialist staff time.
We hold 501(c)(3) status and can supply audited financials, a Form 990, and references from current funders.
Request our funder packGive money
Unrestricted gifts are the most useful thing you can send us — they cover the parts of a program that grant budgets rarely reach.
$50 puts a build kit in a student’s hands.
$500 runs a full Saturday lab for twenty families.
$5,000 funds a school partnership for a year.
$25,000 sponsors an innovation lab for a season.
Ninety-one cents of every dollar goes directly to programs and grants. Gifts are tax-deductible, and we can accept stock, donor-advised fund grants, and matched giving.
Monthly gifts are the steadiest kind of support — they let us commit to a season before the money is in. You can change or stop one at any time.
Give time
Mentor a student for a semester, staff a weekend lab, judge a showcase, or teach a one-off workshop in your field. Individual roles ask for two to four hours a month, and training is provided.
For companies, we run half-day team volunteering at our labs — kit-building, mock interviews, and portfolio reviews for pathway students. Teams of eight to forty, booked a month ahead.
All volunteers working directly with young people complete a background check, which we arrange and pay for.
Give in kind
A working laptop, a retired 3D printer, or a room we can use on Saturdays is often worth more to a program than its cash value.
What we can use: computers and tablets under six years old, lab and maker equipment, components and consumables, software licenses, meeting or lab space, transport and logistics, printing, and professional services such as legal, accounting, or design.
What we can’t: equipment needing repair, hardware too old to run current software, or anything requiring specialist disposal. We will tell you honestly rather than accept a donation we would have to scrap.
Send a short list before shipping anything. We will confirm what we can place, arrange collection where possible, and provide a receipt with a fair-market valuation for your records.
Partner with us
Our deepest relationships combine all three kinds of support: a company funds a lab, sends its engineers to mentor in it, and donates the hardware that fills it.
Partnerships run one to three years and are built around what you actually have to offer, rather than a fixed sponsorship tier sheet. Schools, libraries, employers, and community organizations all shape programs with us.
See our grants programTalk to us
Tell us what you would like to give and we will tell you honestly where it would do the most good. A person reads every message and replies within two working days.
Prefer the phone? Call (312) 380-1127, weekdays 9am–5pm Central. For gifts over $25,000 or multi-year partnerships, ask for the development team.
Chicago STEM Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3). EIN available on request.
Every contribution fuels possibility.
Money, hours, or a box of usable equipment — thank you for supporting the future of STEM in Chicago. If you can’t give right now, telling one family that our labs are free helps too.