Washington · Nonprofit
BELLWETHER HOUSING
BELLWETHER HOUSING (Washington) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,291,095 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,250,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $65M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $7.3M
- Net assets
- $106M
What Bellwether Housing does
Mission
Form 990, part iii, line 1, description of organization mission:bellwether creates stable communities and access to opportunity through affordable housing. We develop and manage homes for people with limited incomes near job centers, transit, and services. We amplify our impact by helping other organizations in the puget sound region do the same. We envision diverse communities where people of all incomes and backgrounds share in the prosperity of our region.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Program service accomplishments: Bellwether Housing is the largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing in the puget sound region. We own and operate 3,537 affordable apartments in 38 buildings, providing families and seniors with safe, stable housing. By creating housing for people with limited incomes, we build stronger, safer, more prosperous communities for everyone. We serve households with annual incomes between 0-60% of the area median income (that is an annual income of up to roughly $98,640 for a family of four). We house 7,000 people near transit, job centers, schools, and community resources, offering residents access to the opportunity and prosperity of our region. Many of our residents include families exiting homelessness, independent seniors, immigrants seeking opportunity, workers earning modest wages, and young people just starting out. Our staff take pride in keeping our buildings clean, safe, and well-maintained. Bellwether's resident service team connects residents to local services and benefits that can support them in achieving their goals. We have six buildings currently under construction. When they are complete, our community will have an additional…
As part of its real estate portfolio bellwether has sole ownership of 26 buildings in the puget sound area providing 1,876 affordable housing units. We create and maintain outstanding homes and connect residents in need of support to organizations that can help them lead healthy and independent lives.
$51,320,406 spent$32,097,440 earned by the program92% of program spendingBellwether Housing, through partnerships with several low-income housing tax credit (lihtc) partners, also shares ownership of several buildings that provide additional affordable housing units. On these jointly owned buildings, bellwether is responsible for refurbishment of units, construction of new units and management of all buildings.
$3,450,970 spent$9,396,764 earned by the program6% of program spendingBellwether Housing provides fee-based technical assistance to help other non-profits create affordable housing for their respective markets. Services include consulting in the areas of development, property management and asset management. Additionally, bellwether provides fee-based operational management services to its lihtc partners in the building and delivery of affordable housing.
$862,742 spent$-23,155 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $55,634,118.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $264M to $382M (+44%).
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 15% · 2018 7% · 2019 16% · 2020 13% · 2021 12% · 2022 12% · 2023 11% · 2024 12% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Susan Boyd
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Peter Larsen
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $129k → $538k.
8 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 BELLWETHER HOUSING’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
BELLWETHER HOUSING has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
68% 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 BELLWETHER HOUSING.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 58% · 2019 67% · 2020 57% · 2021 56% · 2022 26% · 2023 46% — growing more concentrated.
“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
43% of BELLWETHER HOUSING's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% 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
55% of BELLWETHER HOUSING's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 BELLWETHER HOUSING
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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 51 related entities
- 1201 Summit LLC · disregarded
- Annapolis LLC · disregarded
- Bellevue Olive LLC · disregarded
- Bellwether Marina Club LLC · disregarded
- Bellwether Renton Sage LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BELLWETHER HOUSING: 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 BELLWETHER HOUSING?
- BELLWETHER HOUSING (Washington) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,291,095 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,250,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BELLWETHER HOUSING have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $7,291,095 in grants to BELLWETHER HOUSING, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BELLWETHER HOUSING?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $2,250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BELLWETHER HOUSING 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 Bellwether Housing →
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 42 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