Washington · Nonprofit
BACKPACK BRIGADE
BACKPACK BRIGADE (Washington) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,932,553 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($269,995). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 61
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Backpack Brigade does
Mission
Backpack Brigade's mission is to partner with local communities to provide weekend hunger bags to school kids in need. We ensure every child is fed all weekend long.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
We provide weekend hunger bags for homeless and food insecure children in king county, washington. In 2025, the organization provided 154,627 bags that equals 1,391,643 meals served.
$1,277,896 spentof which $935,248 as grants$1,037 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,277,896.
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 2024 to 2025, from $969k to $1.9M (+99%).
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 14% · 2021 19% · 2022 11% · 2023 15% · 2024 12% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of BACKPACK BRIGADE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Nichelle Hilton
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 23 funders, grant income rose $5k → $330k.
12 of 61 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 BACKPACK BRIGADE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 61 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
BACKPACK BRIGADE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
64% 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 BACKPACK BRIGADE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 53% · 2020 30% · 2021 25% · 2022 21% · 2023 15% — 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
47% of BACKPACK BRIGADE'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
54% of BACKPACK BRIGADE's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $717k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
BACKPACK BRIGADE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 655 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like BACKPACK BRIGADE
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 BACKPACK BRIGADE: 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 BACKPACK BRIGADE?
- BACKPACK BRIGADE (Washington) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,932,553 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($269,995). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BACKPACK BRIGADE have?
- IRS filings report 61 organizations giving $1,932,553 in grants to BACKPACK BRIGADE, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BACKPACK BRIGADE?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $269,995 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BACKPACK BRIGADE 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 Backpack Brigade →
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 61 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