Minnesota · Nonprofit
Breaking Free Inc
Breaking Free Inc (Minnesota) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,739,014 to it, the largest being HEARTH CONNECTION ($967,371). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $291k
What Breaking Free Inc does
Mission
Empowering survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution to build new lives through safe housing, direct services, healing programs, survivor advocacy, worldwide policy change, and hope.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Housing: As part of our housing improvements Breaking Free implemented a SMART goal format for housing plans. The SMART goals are determined by the client and could be completing a resume, addressing mental health, or working on housing related goals. The advocates offer follow-up and support as needed.Breaking Free successfully transitioned from a master-lease and scattered-site housing model to becoming a fully scattered site housing program. With our client's success and safety in mind we chose not to renew our three master-leased buildings and moved those clients to scattered site apartments to either graduate from our program with a Section 8 voucher or to continue with Breaking Free as a scattered site client.
$1,286,621 spentof which $393,491 as grants$24,722 earned by the program67% of program spendingAdvocacy: Breaking Free expanded access to survivor-centered services this year through the implementation of LIFT, a new virtual support group designed to reduce barriers and increase connection for survivors. LIFT provides participants with a safe, trauma informed space to build community, strengthen coping skills, and access peer support regardless of location, transportation challenges, or safety concerns. By offering this group in a virtual format, Breaking Free has been able to reach survivors who may be unable to participate in in person programming, increasing engagement while responding to evolving survivor needs.This year, Breaking Free also prioritized strengthening our advocacy workforce by investing in expanded training opportunities for our advocates. Staff participated in new, specialized trainings focused on trauma informed care, emerging best practices, and the complex, intersecting needs of survivors. In addition, we broadened our internal training curriculum to ensure advocates are equipped with consistent, high quality tools and knowledge across all programs. These enhancements have increased our organizational capacity, improved service quality, and ensured…
$367,653 spentof which $8,687 as grants19% of program spendingOutreach: Breaking Free expanded its outreach efforts this year through continued mobile outreach using our outreach bus to engage individuals living in homeless encampments and other high risk environments. This approach has been instrumental in building trust with unsheltered and marginalized individuals while providing immediate access to stabilization support, essential resources, and connections to housing and ongoing services. Through coordinated anti trafficking street outreach across Ramsey County and participation in community tabling events, Breaking Free increased awareness of available services and strengthened connections with individuals most in need.To further enhance outreach impact, Breaking Free established new partnerships with local community businesses including Chuck & Don's, Whole Foods, Kowalski's, and others to provide food, hygiene items, and supplies directly to clients during outreach. These collaborations, alongside ongoing partnerships with community organizations and law enforcement, have strengthened our ability to respond to immediate needs while offering compassionate, survivor centered pathways toward safety, recovery, and long term stability.
$262,725 spentof which $6,833 as grants14% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,916,999.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.3M to $491k (−61%).
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 66% · 2022 62% · 2023 69% · 2024 54% · 2025 85%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Breaking Free Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 5 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
Lori Quist
Executive Director
Board chair
Amelia Beard
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $47k → $487k.
13 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 Breaking Free Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
Breaking Free Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% 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
63% 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 Breaking Free Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 20% · 2019 40% · 2020 37% · 2021 27% · 2022 29% · 2023 37% — 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
41% of Breaking Free Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
83% of Breaking Free Inc's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $544k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
Breaking Free Inc's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 20 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Breaking Free Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.7M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$5.6M
- Department of Justice$38k
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 Breaking Free 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Breaking Free 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 Breaking Free Inc?
- Breaking Free Inc (Minnesota) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,739,014 to it, the largest being HEARTH CONNECTION ($967,371). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Breaking Free Inc have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $2,739,014 in grants to Breaking Free Inc, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Breaking Free Inc?
- HEARTH CONNECTION is the largest funder on record, with $967,371 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Breaking Free Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Breaking Free →
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 50 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