California · Nonprofit
Break the Barriers Inc
Break the Barriers Inc (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,657,593 to it, the largest being LEON S PETERS FOUNDATION ($410,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $4.8M
What Break the Barriers Inc does
Mission
Break the Barriers, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1984, celebrates the achievements of individuals of all abilities, ethnicities, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds through inclusive programs, outreach, and education. Our mission is to empower local and global communities, fostering optimal creative, physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. We strive to enhance quality of life by helping individuals unlock their full potential and overcome physical and mental barriers.Based in our 39,000-square-foot Ability Center, Break the Barriers serves over 3,000 weekly participants, including Buddy students from Valley Schools, refugees, at-risk youth, and a growing number of Military Veterans. Our 23 inclusive programs - supported by donations, grants, and events - are tailored to meet evolving community needs. These programs span performing arts, sports, aquatics, education, health, and fitness, encouraging participants to pursue their dreams. Our alumni include Olympians
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Through grants, fundraising events, individual and corporate donations Break the Barriers serves 3,000 people with various abilities weekly in house and hundreds of thousands annually locally and around the world. Break the Barriers is the largest recreation education and aftercare rehabilitation program in the nation for veterans and active duty members outside of the Veterans Administration. Break the Barriers serves underserved youth through recreation, cultural arts, and literacy programs.
$2,564,385 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,564,385.
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. 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 2021 to 2022, from $3.6M to $4.6M (+27%).
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: 2020 17% · 2021 14% · 2022 6% · 2023 23% · 2024 1% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
26% of Break the Barriers Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 15 funders, grant income fell $303k → $296k.
8 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 Break the Barriers Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
Break the Barriers Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
38% 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 Break the Barriers Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 32% · 2019 31% · 2020 35% · 2021 53% · 2022 24% · 2023 26% — 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
41% of Break the Barriers 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
87% of Break the Barriers Inc's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $567k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
Break the Barriers Inc is better cushioned than half of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Break the Barriers Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $761k on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$671k
- National Endowment for the Arts$90k
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 Break the Barriers 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 Break the Barriers 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 Break the Barriers Inc?
- Break the Barriers Inc (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,657,593 to it, the largest being LEON S PETERS FOUNDATION ($410,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Break the Barriers Inc have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $2,657,593 in grants to Break the Barriers Inc, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Break the Barriers Inc?
- LEON S PETERS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $410,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Break the Barriers Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Break the Barriers →
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 43 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