Connecticut · Nonprofit
BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC
BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $429,712 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($217,508). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $137k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $430k
- Net assets
- $143k
What Bens Lighthouse Inc does
Mission
Service through the Arts to empower youth to find their light.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
The intent of The Isle of SkooTM program is to empower children and teens to develop the self-awareness, empathy, and social connections they need to feel included, accepted, and confident in themselves and their community. The Isle of SkooTM is an arts-based program that utilizes music, puppetry, and mentorship to teach self-awareness and coping skills to children ages 4 to 8 and teens, ages 12 -18. Our mentor-based model is used to develop a sense of connection between the mentor and the mentee and to the skills taught during the camp. The original puppetry, music and dance are used as teaching tools to convey the importance of empathy, self-awareness, and inclusion. Ben's Lighthouse offered three, week-long sessions of The Isle of SkooTM Summer Camp July 8-12, July 15-19, and July 22-26, 2024, respectively. The camp took place daily from 9:00am to 12:00pm and 1:00 - 4:00, July 15 -19, 2024 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown, CT. One hundred seventy-two area children were serviced by the summer camp in 2024. The program was facilitated by four adults, three puppeteers and a sound technician. See our website www.benslighthouse.org for more details.
$162,348 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $162,348.
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 2023 to 2024, from $206k to $147k (−29%).
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.
90% of BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Board chair
Keith Alexander
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 7 funders, grant income fell $81k → $67k.
5 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 BENS LIGHTHOUSE 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
BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
81% 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 BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 56% · 2019 53% · 2020 62% · 2021 91% · 2022 46% · 2023 63% — 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
30% of BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
81% of BENS LIGHTHOUSE 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 $84k that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside Connecticut, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $346k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $430k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8k on record.
- State Aid Grants$6k
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$2k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BENS LIGHTHOUSE 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
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 BENS LIGHTHOUSE 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 BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC?
- BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $429,712 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($217,508). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $429,712 in grants to BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BENS LIGHTHOUSE INC?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $217,508 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BENS LIGHTHOUSE 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 Bens Lighthouse →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 16 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