Washington · Nonprofit
AURORA COMMONS
AURORA COMMONS (Washington) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,315,463 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($631,685). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $3.6M
What Aurora Commons does
Mission
Aurora Commons cultivates belonging and community to foster health and healing among our neighbors experiencing poverty and homelessness.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Aurora Commons cultivates community and belonging to foster health and healing among our neighbors experiencing poverty and homelessness. Aurora Commons welcomed 41,937 visits from our neighbors experiencing poverty & homelessness, a 64% increase from the year before. The increase is reflected in all of our program engagement as well. Advocates worked with 1,117 individuals, 10% increase from FY24. Our team-based advocacy leaves lots of room for people to come as they are and sit down with an advocate. This low-barrier approach has helped us better connect with those who come to Aurora Commons each week. Our onsite clinics also saw an increase of patients, SHE Clinic seeing 276 individuals and Aurora Clinic seeing 222 individuals. Our goal is to continue to re-imagine how we can better serve our amazing neighbors. After over 11 years of holding the stories of our neighbors we recognize both the complexities of each individual narrative as well as some of the commonalities that emerge as barriers to seeking care and taking steps toward stability. We offer many practical resources for our neighbors who are struggling to access basic survival needs, however, at the heart of our…
$1,805,468 spentof which $168,895 as grants100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,805,468.
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 2021 to 2022, from $283k to $3.7M (+1212%).
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: 2020 30% · 2021 33% · 2022 23% · 2023 58% · 2024 61% · 2025 66%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
102% of AURORA COMMONS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% 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
Elizabeth Dahl Helendi
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2022 and FY2023, and between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $12k → $252k.
11 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 82% 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 AURORA COMMONS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 20 of 21 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
AURORA COMMONS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 AURORA COMMONS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2019 100% · 2020 39% · 2021 32% · 2022 68% · 2023 58% — growing more concentrated.
“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
44% of AURORA COMMONS'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
82% of AURORA COMMONS'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 $232k that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M 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
AURORA COMMONS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like AURORA COMMONS
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AURORA COMMONS: 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 AURORA COMMONS?
- AURORA COMMONS (Washington) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,315,463 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($631,685). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AURORA COMMONS have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $1,315,463 in grants to AURORA COMMONS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AURORA COMMONS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $631,685 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AURORA COMMONS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Aurora Commons →
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 21 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