Nevada · Nonprofit
Awaken INC
Awaken INC (Nevada) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,433,975 to it, the largest being Tahoe Community Foundation ($896,300). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Awaken INC does
Mission
Awaken's mission is to increase awareness and education surrounding the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and to provide housing and restoration for its victims. Awaken acts to transform our community with the ultimate goal of eradicating commercial sexual exploitation. We aim for victims of commercial sexual exploitation to be restored to their fullest potential. We aspire to be an inspirational model for other communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program and a significant change in how it conducts a program.
Awaken established a new disregarded entity, Safe City Media, LLC. This wholly-owned subsidiary was created for the purpose of distributing the At What Cost documentary and other media content to the public in support of its education and awareness initiatives
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
The branch in Wisconsin was closed during the fiscal year.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Awaken's Restorative Care program represents the largest component of the organization's services, providing comprehensive, trauma-informed support to individuals impacted by commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. Services are delivered in a location situated within a high-need area known for elevated levels of prostitution activity, allowing for increased accessibility to those most vulnerable. Awaken serves both youth and adults, ranging in age from 11 to over 60 years old. Core services include individualized case management, referrals to licensed therapeutic providers, mentorship, social development opportunities, and psychoeducational and life skills programming designed to support long-term stability and healing. (Continued on Schedule O)During the most recent fiscal year, Awaken provided services to 243 primary participants and 29 secondary participants.The Awaken Education Center (AEC) was established during the 2020 school year. The AEC is a specialized, holistic, education and restorative school experience for youth who have been trafficked encompassing grades 6-12. Between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 two girls attended the Awaken Education Center (AEC),…
$1,753,739 spentof which $87,601 as grants$7,386 earned by the program88% of program spendingAwaken's City Transformation initiatives are designed to create sustainable social change by increasing community awareness and mobilizing collective action against sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Through strategic advocacy, outreach, and education efforts, Awaken equips individuals, professionals, and community partners with the knowledge and resources necessary to recognize, prevent, and respond to exploitation. Awaken remains committed to fostering partnerships and empowering communities, recognizing that addressing trafficking requires a united effort. (Continued on Schedule O)During the reporting period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, Awaken conducted 116 community engagements, reaching and educating over 4,482 individuals on issues related to sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.In addition, Awaken finalized and conducted screenings of its documentary, At What Cost, which highlights the realities of trafficking and exploitation while amplifying survivor-informed perspectives. The film serves as an additional educational and advocacy tool to deepen community understanding and inspire action.
$162,592 spent8% of program spendingIn 2019, Awaken launched the Awaken Restorative Home to provide a safe, rent-free residential program for adult female survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Since its inception, the program has served fifteen women, offering trauma-informed support and stability in a healing-focused environment. In the current tax year, Awaken strategically repurposed the Restorative Home to meet an emerging need by prioritizing services for pregnant and parenting mothers affected by trafficking. This shift reflects Awaken's continued commitment to breaking the generational cycle of exploitation by providing family-centered, holistic care.(Continued on Schedule O)In January 2025, Awaken welcomed its first family into the Restorative Home under this expanded model, marking a significant milestone in providing supportive, stable housing for both mothers and their children
$60,521 spent3% of program spendingAwaken offers preventative education efforts targeting the most vulnerable population - disadvantaged youth. Awaken presents at school assemblies, delivers classroom-based curriculum to students, and works with youth groups to talk to local students about the realities of human trafficking and how to prevent it from happening to them or their loved ones. Between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, we presented in 3 different events and reached 446 students.In 2022, Awaken, in conjunction with Washoe County Human Services Agency launched Northern Nevada's first survivor developed curriculum from My Life My Choice. This evidence-based program equips vulnerable youth with essential life skills to break cycles of exploitation. This fiscal year, twelve at-risk youth benefited from this program with a 100% graduation rate.
$20,221 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,997,073.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.3M to $2.6M (+101%).
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 23% · 2018 24% · 2019 22% · 2020 29% · 2021 27% · 2022 28% · 2023 28% · 2024 22% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Awaken INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (39% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Melissa Holland
CEO/Co-Founder
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $150k → $817k.
18 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 Awaken INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
Awaken INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
69% 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 Awaken INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 53% · 2019 39% · 2020 24% · 2021 36% · 2022 48% · 2023 34% — broadly stable.
“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
39% of Awaken INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
50% of Awaken INC'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 $2.1M that is directly attributable, 59% of it comes from funders outside Nevada, across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
Awaken INC has grown faster than half of the 2,367 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,367 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Awaken INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $650k on record.
- Department of Justice$650k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Awaken INC
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 Nevada
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
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 2 related entities
- Safe City Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Safe City Media LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Awaken INC: 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 Awaken INC?
- Awaken INC (Nevada) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,433,975 to it, the largest being Tahoe Community Foundation ($896,300). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Awaken INC have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $4,433,975 in grants to Awaken INC, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Awaken INC?
- Tahoe Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $896,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Awaken INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nevada. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 64 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