Minnesota · Nonprofit
AYADA LEADS
AYADA LEADS (Minnesota) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,802,445 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($330,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $592k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $578k
What Ayada Leads does
Mission
Ayada Leads is a nonpartisan civic leadership organization that supports multicultural society, multicultural democracy, and gender equality. Our mission is to equip New Americans, particularly African Diaspora Women, to excel in leadership positions in their communities across the spectrum of societal influence. We envision a world in which African diaspora women and girls feel valued, safe, and prepared to achieve their academic, professional, and leadership dreams.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
1. Women in Leadership: Cultivating African Diaspora Women for Civic Leadership At the heart of Ayada Leads is our groundbreaking effort to encourage, train, and support African Diaspora women to run for public office and serve on influential boards and commissions. This is not just candidate training; it's a cultural shift. We meet women where they are, recognizing the leadership they already hold in their families, communities, and workplaces, and equipping them to step into formal civic power. We provide: * Personalized candidate development grounded in identity and lived experience * Strategic coaching on running for office and serving in appointed roles * Cutting-edge campaign tools tailored to the unique challenges and strengths of African Diaspora women Our first-of-its-kind approach doesn't simply add women to the political process; it transforms it, ensuring that the voices shaping policy reflect the diversity and dynamism of our communities. With expanded resources, we can scale this talent pool and support a new generation of culturally rooted, politically powerful African women leaders. 2. Advocacy through Coalition and Community Power Policy change requires more than…
$316,003 spentof which $1,145 as grants$2,500 earned by the program100% 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: $316,003.
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 $261k to $437k (+67%).
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.
100% of AYADA LEADS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Habon Abdulle
Executive Director
Board chair
Huda Ahmed
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $25k → $215k.
6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 AYADA LEADS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
AYADA LEADS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
76% 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 AYADA LEADS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 36% · 2020 32% · 2021 26% · 2022 42% · 2023 23% — 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
50% of AYADA LEADS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 82% 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
73% of AYADA LEADS's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $643k 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.
Against its field
AYADA LEADS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like AYADA LEADS
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 AYADA LEADS: 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 AYADA LEADS?
- AYADA LEADS (Minnesota) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,802,445 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($330,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AYADA LEADS have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,802,445 in grants to AYADA LEADS, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AYADA LEADS?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $330,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AYADA LEADS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 17 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