North Carolina · Nonprofit
Asheville Poverty Initiative
Asheville Poverty Initiative (North Carolina) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $668,229 to it, the largest being COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC ($192,200). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $605k
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $668k
- Net assets
- $676k
What Asheville Poverty Initiative does
Mission
The mission of Asheville Poverty Initiative is to build community and educate about the realities of poverty.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Asheville Poverty Initiative advances its mission to build community and educate about the realities of poverty through two primary programs: 12 Baskets Cafe and the Realities of Poverty Education Program. In 2025, services expanded following Tropical Storm Helene, providing consistent access to food, resources, and community connection while elevating the voices of individuals with lived experience of poverty. Programs were supported by approximately 100 volunteers contributing about 10,500 hours of service.
$342,479 spentof which $340 as grants$3,024 earned by the program100% of program spending12 Baskets Cafe provided free community meals and grocery distribution rooted in dignity and abundance. In 2025, the cafe served approximately 200 meals per lunch service, totaling more than 40,000 meals. The free grocery store distributed approximately 24,000 bags of groceries annually, while partnerships with local food businesses enabled the program to divert an estimated 180,000 pounds of food each year from landfills and redistribute it to community members. The cafe also hosted mutual aid partners and supportive services that foster community connection and access to resources.
The Realities of Poverty Education Program hosted 35 educational activities reaching approximately 640 participants through poverty walks, panel discussions, and storytelling events led by educators with lived experience. Program leaders also shared community perspectives before Asheville City Council to encourage compassionate responses to poverty and homelessness.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $342,479.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $269k to $500k (+86%).
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: 2024 3% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Asheville Poverty Initiative’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
Ben Williamson
Executive Director
Board chair
Kimberleigh Wells
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $7k → $102k.
9 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 Asheville Poverty Initiative’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 22 of 23 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
Asheville Poverty Initiative has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
65% 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 Asheville Poverty Initiative.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 97% · 2020 60% · 2021 77% · 2022 72% · 2023 31% — 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
57% of Asheville Poverty Initiative's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
53% of Asheville Poverty Initiative'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 $312k that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $357k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Asheville Poverty Initiative runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Asheville Poverty Initiative
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Asheville Poverty Initiative: 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 Asheville Poverty Initiative?
- Asheville Poverty Initiative (North Carolina) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $668,229 to it, the largest being COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC ($192,200). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Asheville Poverty Initiative have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $668,229 in grants to Asheville Poverty Initiative, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Asheville Poverty Initiative?
- COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS INC is the largest funder on record, with $192,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Asheville Poverty Initiative find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 23 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing