Virginia · Nonprofit
Arlington Food Assistance Center
Arlington Food Assistance Center (Virginia) receives grants from 140 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,255,232 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,471,597). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $10M
- Funders on record
- 140
- Grants received
- $9.3M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Arlington Food Assistance Center does
Mission
To provide dignified access to free groceries for qualified families in Arlington, VA and surrounding counties.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) is an independent, community-based, nonprofit food pantry that provides dignified access to nutritious supplemental groceries to all Arlington neighbors in need. AFAC works to relieve long-term food insecurity in Arlington County and nearby jurisdictions. AFAC focuses its food offerings on the high-cost items in a grocery basket that are essential for a healthy, nutritious diet, which are often avoided by low-income families - proteins (chicken, fish, hotdogs & ground beef), fresh fruit & vegetables, eggs, and milk among a number of culturally important food products. This allows families to reduce their food budget to make other necessary purchases without sacrificing their health, housing, or nutritional needs. AFAC operates its main distribution site out of their warehouse/headquarters at 2708 South Nelson Street and distributes food at 20 other locations around Arlington County. This includes a Home Delivery service for home-bound individuals in need of food. In the year ended June 30, 2025, AFAC served an average of 4,201 families each week just under 12,000 individuals, a third of whom are children under the age of 18. In total,…
$8,119,461 spentof which $2,528,066 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $8,119,461.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $3.8M to $6.9M (+79%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 9% · 2018 10% · 2019 9% · 2020 7% · 2021 8% · 2022 9% · 2023 9% · 2024 7% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Arlington Food Assistance Center’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Charles Meng
CEO
Board chair
Erica Beardsley
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 63 funders, grant income rose $403k → $1.3M.
30 of 140 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Arlington Food Assistance Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 140 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Arlington Food Assistance Center has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
79% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Arlington Food Assistance Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 41% · 2019 27% · 2020 12% · 2021 23% · 2022 15% · 2023 14% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
51% of Arlington Food Assistance Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
56% of Arlington Food Assistance Center's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $4.0M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from Virginia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Arlington Food Assistance Center runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 201 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 201 food & nutrition nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like Arlington Food Assistance Center
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- 2708 S Nelson Street LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Arlington Food Assistance Center: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Arlington Food Assistance Center?
- Arlington Food Assistance Center (Virginia) receives grants from 140 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,255,232 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,471,597). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Arlington Food Assistance Center have?
- IRS filings report 140 organizations giving $9,255,232 in grants to Arlington Food Assistance Center, 84 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Arlington Food Assistance Center?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,471,597 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Arlington Food Assistance Center find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Arlington Food Assistance Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 140 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing