Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
BREAKFREE EDUCATION
BREAKFREE EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,893,940 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($3,119,300). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $5.9M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What Breakfree Education does
Mission
Our mission is to radically improve education in the juvenile and criminal justice systems by investing in the potential and dignity of all its students.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
During the fiscal year the organization ceased the travis hill schools program which established itself as its own nonprofit and Breakfree Education entered into a transfer agreement effective july 1, 2024. The travis hill school is a two campus alternative school. One campus is located inside of the new orleans adult jail and the other is located inside the new orleans juvenile detention center. Our mission at the travis hill schools is to create a transformative learning environment where students held in secure settings develop the academic and socioemotional skills they need to become positive contributing members of their community when they are released. Approximately 100 students attend the school at any given time. We opened the school in the juvenile detention center in august of 2016 and in the jail in august 2017.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Direct educational support - Breakfree Education provides a range of educational support services to juvenile agencies and their education partners around the country. This support includes onsite training for school leaders, teachers, and custodial care staff. It also may include support around policy and administrative practices that impact significantly on the quality of education provided in secure settings. We also offer a range of light touch services and support through our monthly initiatives and ongoing educational training opportunities. These services are combined together for accounting purposes as general program support.
$354,079 spent$2,300 earned by the program39% of program spendingOther - Breakfree Education offers a range of other services in support of their mission. This includes their support for neighbors for justice, a nonprofit for which they are serving as its fiscal sponsor while its 501c3 application is pending, their broader work with their consortium member agencies and ongoing support for travis hill nola during its transition.
$305,669 spentof which $125,000 as grants$257,604 earned by the program33% of program spendingIncarceration reduction amendment act (iraa) - through the iraa fellowship Breakfree Education provides intensive technology and work-readiness training to return citizens and then matches the fellows with employers in the nonprofit sector.
$253,336 spentof which $72,500 as grants28% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $913,084.
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 2024 to 2025, from $4.5M to $2.6M (−43%).
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: 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of BREAKFREE EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
David Domenici
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $706k → $852k.
14 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 92% 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 BREAKFREE EDUCATION’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
BREAKFREE EDUCATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 BREAKFREE EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 92% · 2018 98% · 2019 87% · 2020 77% · 2021 48% · 2022 40% · 2023 39% — 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
33% of BREAKFREE EDUCATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
92% of BREAKFREE EDUCATION'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 $496k that is directly attributable, 53% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
BREAKFREE EDUCATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,064 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,064 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding BREAKFREE EDUCATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $91k on record.
- NJ$37k
- DE$37k
- OR$18k
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 BREAKFREE EDUCATION
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, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% 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 BREAKFREE EDUCATION: 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 BREAKFREE EDUCATION?
- BREAKFREE EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,893,940 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($3,119,300). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BREAKFREE EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $5,893,940 in grants to BREAKFREE EDUCATION, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BREAKFREE EDUCATION?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,119,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BREAKFREE EDUCATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing