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Nebraska · Nonprofit

AVENUE SCHOLARS

AVENUE SCHOLARS (Nebraska) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,160,678 to it, the largest being CHARLES E LAKIN FOUNDATION INC ($9,965,337). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$5.2M
Funders on record
35
Grants received
$32M
Net assets
$1.5M
26/35 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Avenue Scholars does

Mission

To provide an avenue of success for nebraska and iowa area students of talent and need by offering comprehensive support from high school through community college or entry into the workforce leading to enhanced lives and careers.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To provide an avenue of success for nebraska and iowa area students of talent and need by offering comprehensive support from high school through community college or entry into the workforce leading to enhanced lives and careers. Services include academic support, college application support, mentoring, group and individual counseling, work study guidance, financial aid and scholarship support.

    $3,919,428 spentof which $32,459 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,919,428.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($4.2M) Expenses 100 ($4.3M) Net assets 100 ($1.7M)2018 Revenue 123 ($5.1M) Expenses 105 ($4.5M) Net assets 138 ($2.3M)2019 Revenue 92 ($3.8M) Expenses 105 ($4.5M) Net assets 95 ($1.6M)2020 Revenue 124 ($5.2M) Expenses 109 ($4.7M) Net assets 123 ($2.0M)2021 Revenue 136 ($5.6M) Expenses 119 ($5.1M) Net assets 155 ($2.6M)2022 Revenue 119 ($4.9M) Expenses 124 ($5.3M) Net assets 129 ($2.1M)2023 Revenue 121 ($5.0M) Expenses 117 ($5.0M) Net assets 132 ($2.2M)2024 Revenue 107 ($4.4M) Expenses 120 ($5.1M) Net assets 92 ($1.5M)2025 Revenue 124 ($5.2M) Expenses 121 ($5.2M) Net assets 92 ($1.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (124)Expenses (121)Net assets (92)Peer revenue range

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 $1.6M to $2.8M (+74%).

$1.7M
$2.3M
$1.6M
$2.8M
$3.3M
$2.2M
$2.8M
$2.7M
$2.1M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 0% · 2021 12% · 2022 13% · 2023 10% · 2024 3% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of AVENUE SCHOLARS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,360 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$128k
’17
$624k
’18
−$704k
’19
$460k
’20
$528k
’21
−$384k
’22
$53k
’23
−$684k
’24
−$3k
’25
2.2
months of
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.

Board chair

Susie Buffett

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed998101087910
Joined·+0+0+3+0+2+0+3+4
No longer listed·01104113
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $5.6M.

4 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 AVENUE SCHOLARS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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

AVENUE SCHOLARS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

31%
largest funder
66%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 49% · 2019 33% · 2020 43% · 2021 43% · 2022 28% · 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

70% of AVENUE SCHOLARS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

65% of AVENUE SCHOLARS's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.

IL
IA
PA
CA
NE
MO
DE
AZ

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Nebraska out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $73k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AVENUE SCHOLARS's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 18 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−0% · below the median
Months of reserve2.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like AVENUE SCHOLARS

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 Nebraska

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 24%Fundraising 0%

Governance

7
board members
86%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

48%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • The Bridge Family Resource Connector Network · exempt
  • Avenue Scholars Iowa · exempt
  • Avenue Shared Services · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AVENUE SCHOLARS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 AVENUE SCHOLARS?
AVENUE SCHOLARS (Nebraska) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,160,678 to it, the largest being CHARLES E LAKIN FOUNDATION INC ($9,965,337). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AVENUE SCHOLARS have?
IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $32,160,678 in grants to AVENUE SCHOLARS, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AVENUE SCHOLARS?
CHARLES E LAKIN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $9,965,337 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AVENUE SCHOLARS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. 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 Avenue Scholars →

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 35 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