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Illinois · Nonprofit

BREAKING GROUND INC

BREAKING GROUND INC (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,192,915 to it, the largest being IFF ($5,184,494). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$55k
Funders on record
4
Grants received
$5.2M
Net assets
$83k
2/4 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Breaking Ground Inc does

Mission

To establish educate and empower families to gain economic and indiviual tools that lead to self-sufficiency and personal growth through construction of affordable single family homes and incubating social enteprises and start-up construction companies led by local residents

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Development of affordable homes for residents vulnerable to gentrification

    $45,507 spent$50,000 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $45,507.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.2M) Expenses 100 ($1.1M) Net assets 100 ($780k)2018 Revenue 86 ($1.0M) Expenses 96 ($1.1M) Net assets 96 ($748k)2019 Revenue 92 ($1.1M) Expenses 117 ($1.3M) Net assets 70 ($545k)2020 Revenue 52 ($622k) Expenses 62 ($698k) Net assets 60 ($470k)2021 Revenue 30 ($356k) Expenses 30 ($339k) Net assets 62 ($487k)2022 Revenue 71 ($853k) Expenses 91 ($1.0M) Net assets 41 ($319k)2023 Revenue 317 ($3.8M) Expenses 335 ($3.7M) Net assets 50 ($389k)2024 Revenue 7 ($85k) Expenses 35 ($395k) Net assets 10 ($80k)2025 Revenue 5 ($55k) Expenses 5 ($53k) Net assets 11 ($83k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (5)Expenses (5)Net assets (11)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $2.2M to $1.4M (−36%).

$2.2M
$1.4M
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.0M
$942k
$1.2M
$573k
$571k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 4% · 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 51% · 2022 1% · 2024 3% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

9% of BREAKING GROUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,498 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$84k
’17
−$32k
’18
−$202k
’19
−$75k
’20
$17k
’21
−$168k
’22
$70k
’23
−$309k
’24
$3k
’25
21
months of
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

Joseph Pruitt

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed887666633
Joined·+0+0+0+0+1+1+3+0
No longer listed·01101160
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $2.5M → $16.

Funder
'17
'18
'19
'20
'23
'24*
total
Iffunclassified
$5.2M
funders
1
1
2
2
1
1

2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 GROUND 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

BREAKING GROUND INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% 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

100% 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 GROUND INC.

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

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.

“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

100% of BREAKING GROUND INC's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

IL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

BREAKING GROUND INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,787 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · above the median
Months of reserve20.9mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−32% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,787 human services nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like BREAKING GROUND 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 Illinois

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

87% of spending goes to programs.

Program 87%Management 13%Fundraising 0%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BREAKING GROUND 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 GROUND INC?
BREAKING GROUND INC (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,192,915 to it, the largest being IFF ($5,184,494). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BREAKING GROUND INC have?
IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $5,192,915 in grants to BREAKING GROUND INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BREAKING GROUND INC?
IFF is the largest funder on record, with $5,184,494 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BREAKING GROUND INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Ground →

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 4 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