Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC
BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,894,918 to it, the largest being PRENTICE FARRAR BROWN AND ALLINE FORD BROWN ($1,760,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $607k
What Believe in Students Inc does
Mission
To address basic needs insecurity among college students and promote college attainment by developing and supporting innovative, sustainable, and effective solutions that can scale to meet widespread demand.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
#realcollege - bis is the organizational home of the #real college movement, a national effort to raise awareness of basic needs insecurity among college students and redefine what it means to be a student-ready college. The organization develops educational tools and resources to educate and empower faculty, staff, and administrators in higher education to develop and execute strategies to better address students' basic needs in a way that will increase persistence and graduation. In 2024, bis launched the first four courses in the #realcollege curriculum, on online resource for educators to better understand why basic needs insecurity exists and how to address it to be used by nearly 100 faculty, staff, and higher education administrators.
$246,489 spent40% of program spendingGreat lakes consortium - the great lakes fast fund consortium is made up of six fast fund sites in illinois and wisconsin who have formed a collaboration to pursue systemic change. Believe in students has led this group to run a paid student fellowship to train and support impacted students to serve as leaders in this work, and organize faculty, staff, and students to advocate for campus policy and practice changes. In 2024, the organization supported 22 student fellows (10 in spring, 12 in fall) as they developed skills; built relationships among faculty, staff, and students; and created coalitions among other student groups.
$225,446 spent36% of program spendingFast fund network - the fast fund is the organization's flagship program, where small-dollar, flexible emergency aid grants are provided to students to address immediate basic needs challenges that threaten their ability to stay in school. The organization does this by organizing a network of faculty on campuses across the country who serve as volunteer program leaders to engage faculty, staff, and impacted students in addressing student basic needs insecurity, including disseminating emergency grants from funds raised through bis and others. In 2024, bis coordinated and supported 30 fast fund leaders across the country to raise and distribute $771,545 to 2,384 students. This is a 21% increase in students served, and a 43% increase in funds distributed over the prior year. The organization has made investments in improving the infrastructure of supports it provides to the volunteer fast fund leaders, focused on increasing efficiency for volunteer leaders and improving their ability to raise local funds.
$137,788 spent22% of program spendingGather food hall is a social enterprise to combat food insecurity among college students by utilizing a pay-what-you-can model that provides vouchers for students who need extra support and helping the community better understand these issues. Bis has been working with a group of partners to identify people who would own and operate the food hall, while the organization would focus on the social mission of addressing college food insecurity as a nonprofit partner to the effort. 2024 was a milestone year, as an agreement was reached for the food hall to be built by brandywine realty and operated by hospitality hq, brought together a series of partners to help learn from past failures in models like this, and generate a concept that can be sustainable while addressing the social good. The organization began focusing on establishing the program of providing meals, the educational campaign to educate gather's patrons about these issues, and raising funds to support student meals.
$8,690 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $618,413.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $316k to $2.5M (+705%).
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: 2022 69% · 2023 98% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Traci Kirtley
Executive director
Board chair
Richard Binswanger
Board chair (until 12.12.24); board member
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $15k → $193k.
6 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 BELIEVE IN STUDENTS 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
BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
34% 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 BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 97% · 2020 37% · 2021 93% · 2022 38% · 2023 52% — 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
28% of BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% 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
BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $478k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Organizations like BELIEVE IN STUDENTS 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 Pennsylvania
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
52%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BELIEVE IN STUDENTS 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 BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC?
- BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,894,918 to it, the largest being PRENTICE FARRAR BROWN AND ALLINE FORD BROWN ($1,760,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $4,894,918 in grants to BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC?
- PRENTICE FARRAR BROWN AND ALLINE FORD BROWN is the largest funder on record, with $1,760,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BELIEVE IN STUDENTS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Believe in Students →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 27 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