California · Nonprofit
BREAKING THE CHAINS
BREAKING THE CHAINS (California) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $673,207 to it, the largest being WATERFORD FOUNDATION ($299,626). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $673k
- Net assets
- $265k
What Breaking the Chains does
Mission
The organization's mission is to provide hope, healing, and restoration to survivors of human trafficking.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The primary focus of the organization is to serve victims of human trafficking and increase community awareness in the local area and the need to help recovering victims. The organization works closely with the juvenile justice department in the fresno community to assist victims of human trafficking. Victims are provided the following services: addiction treatment, case management, long-term housing, life skills workshops, education and job training, legal advocacy, supportive counseling, survivor leadership, therapy for residential participants, education and job support, and transitional housing. Breaking the Chains serves an average of 75 survivors and their family's every day.
$892,948 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $892,948.
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 2018 to 2019, from $136k to $293k (+116%).
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: 2019 7% · 2020 44% · 2021 59% · 2022 40% · 2023 52% · 2024 59%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of BREAKING THE CHAINS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (39% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Debra Rush
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $30k → $85k.
3 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 THE CHAINS’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 THE CHAINS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
27% 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 THE CHAINS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 47% · 2020 71% · 2021 67% · 2022 74% · 2023 35% — 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 BREAKING THE CHAINS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
74% of BREAKING THE CHAINS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 THE CHAINS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,978 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,978 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like BREAKING THE CHAINS
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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 THE CHAINS: 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 THE CHAINS?
- BREAKING THE CHAINS (California) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $673,207 to it, the largest being WATERFORD FOUNDATION ($299,626). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BREAKING THE CHAINS have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $673,207 in grants to BREAKING THE CHAINS, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BREAKING THE CHAINS?
- WATERFORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $299,626 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BREAKING THE CHAINS 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 Breaking the Chains →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 18 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