Maryland · Nonprofit
Barrier Breakers Inc
Barrier Breakers Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,600 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($45,600). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $471k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $63k
- Net assets
- $-3140
What Barrier Breakers Inc does
Mission
To increase access to, and success in, higher education for First-Generation students and others who face barriers to entry
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Provide high touch college advising to students of all backgrounds, races, and income levels from former admissions deans, directors, and professional writers. We provide 1:1 high-touch counseling to individual families as well as partnerships with local non-profits, organizations, and schools to provide full-service college counseing to the entire student body population in these programs. Our services are free of charge to students who attend Title I schools or who qualify for free and reduced lunch.
$43,691 spent$90,987 earned by the program21% of program spendingProvide high touch law school admissions advising to students of all backgrounds, races, and income levels from former admissions deans, directors, and professional writers. We provide 1:1 high-touch packages, small group boot camps and a la carte essay editing and online courses. Our services are heavily discounted (and often free) for LSAC fee-waiver students.
$121,337 spentof which $2,698 as grants$225,269 earned by the program58% of program spendingWe host nationwide and virtual conferences for aspiring first- generation students, podcasts that demystify the admissions process, workshops and webinars with admissions deans and employers in various fields, tabling events at local fairs and conferences to meet students, and information sessions in conjuction with colleges and universities. We also provide free guides and workbooks, online courses, tips through social media, and email newsletters with scholarship information.
$44,012 spent$26,718 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $209,040.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2022 to 2023, from $50k to $10k (−81%).
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.
24% of Barrier Breakers Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 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
Sydney Montgomery
Executive Director
Board chair
Michele Evard
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% 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 Barrier Breakers Inc’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
Barrier Breakers Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 Barrier Breakers Inc.
“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.
Where its funders are
89% of Barrier Breakers 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 $7k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 2 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Barrier Breakers Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Barrier Breakers 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 Barrier Breakers 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 Barrier Breakers Inc?
- Barrier Breakers Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,600 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($45,600). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Barrier Breakers Inc have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $62,600 in grants to Barrier Breakers Inc, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Barrier Breakers Inc?
- THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $45,600 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Barrier Breakers Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Barrier Breakers →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 4 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