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Connecticut · Nonprofit

Ben Was Here Inc

Ben Was Here Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,281 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($1,131). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1k
Funders on record
2
Grants received
$1k
Net assets
$56k
1/2 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 7%
01What it does

What Ben Was Here Inc does

Mission

Scholarship and community support

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. Scholarships

    $3,000 spent
    34% of program spending
  2. Community support

    $3,800 spent
    43% of program spending
  3. School support

    $2,124 spent
    24% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $8,924.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($12k) Expenses 100 ($19k) Net assets 100 ($85k)2022 Revenue 49 ($6k) Expenses 69 ($13k) Net assets 92 ($78k)2023 Revenue 22 ($3k) Expenses 60 ($11k) Net assets 81 ($69k)2024 Revenue 26 ($3k) Expenses 45 ($9k) Net assets 75 ($64k)2025 Revenue 9 ($1k) Expenses 47 ($9k) Net assets 66 ($56k)
20212022202320242025
Revenue (9)Expenses (47)Net assets (66)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $78k to $69k (−11%).

$85k
$78k
$69k
$64k
$56k
20212022202320242025
Total assets

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.

2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of Ben Was Here Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 8,549 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

−$7k
’21
−$7k
’22
−$9k
’23
−$5k
’24
−$8k
’25
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $419 → $184.

Funder
'20
'21
'22
'23
total
funders
2
1
1
1

1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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 Ben Was Here 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

Ben Was Here Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 88% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

88% 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 Ben Was Here Inc.

88%
largest funder
100%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 64% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.

Where its funders are

88% of Ben Was Here 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 $150 that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Connecticut, across 1 state.

MA

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Ben Was Here Inc's revenue fell 91% between 2021 and 2025.

Operating margin−751% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−46% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,748 philanthropy nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like Ben Was Here 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 Connecticut

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Ben Was Here 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.

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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 Ben Was Here Inc?
Ben Was Here Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,281 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($1,131). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Ben Was Here Inc have?
IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $1,281 in grants to Ben Was Here Inc, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Ben Was Here Inc?
AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,131 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Ben Was Here Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Ben Was Here →

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 2 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