City Hall's No. 1 charity

Sun-Times:

In just a few years, Mayor Daley's wife has built one of the fastest-growing charities in Illinois.

The charity -- After School Matters -- has seen its revenues soar 243 percent from 2003 to 2006, from $5.3 million to $18.2 million, according to the latest reports it's filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Seventeen years ago, Maggie Daley got her husband to set up a summer arts program on Block 37, the long-vacant lot, in the heart of the Loop, across from Marshall Field's. She called it Gallery 37.

It was wildly successful, as office workers and tourists came to watch 260 high school students paint, draw, sculpt and perform music for six weeks.

Gallery 37 evolved into After School Matters, a not-for-profit organization that offers a range of programs for teens at 58 locations across the city.

"Helping Chicago teens achieve their highest potential is at the heart of what we do," Maggie Daley wrote in her charity's latest annual report. "With the support of foundation and corporate funders, individual donors and public partners, After School Matters has created a solid network of out-of-school opportunities for teens that equip them with valuable skills while inspiring optimism about their futures."

For a little perspective, consider that After School Matters -- founded and run by Maggie Daley -- raised more money in a single year than 97 percent of the 12,757 charities in Illinois filing reports with the IRS, according to an analysis done for the Chicago Sun-Times by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

That put the charity -- which provides Chicago teens with year-round extracurricular programs that range from the arts to science to sports -- just behind the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and ahead of the Northern Illinois University Foundation, the Chicago Historical Society and Oprah's Angel Network.

That quick growth has come with major help from City Hall and from companies that get work from City Hall.

After School Matters got nearly half its money in 2006 -- about $8.9 million -- from the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and other governments. The private charity operates out of city-owned offices, using city telephones and other equipment. And its records are kept by the Mayor's Department of Cultural Affairs, headed by Lois Weisberg, who helped Maggie Daley start the charity 17 years ago.

The other half of its money -- about $9.4 million in 2006 -- came from a who's-who of Chicago's business community, including dozens of companies with city contracts. Among them: Walsh Construction, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois, Marina Cartage and East Lake Management and Development.