Minnesota · Nonprofit
BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER
BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER (Minnesota) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,298,771 to it, the largest being SMILE AGAIN GRIEF MINISTRIES INC ($694,890). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $637k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $333k
What Brighter Days Family Grief Center does
Mission
Brighter days grief center is a minnesota nonprofit organization serving adults, young adults, teenagers and children who are grieving the death or terminal diagnosis of a beloved family member. Although we are a grief center providing free services and resources, we are so much more than that at our core. We are a community of professionals and families bound together by our own grief experiences.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Brighter Days Family Grief Center is a nonprofit organization supporting minnesota grieving children, adults, and entire families when the unthinkable happens. Recognized by the twin cities grief community as the premier non-profit family grief center since 2017, brighter days has been a resource to more than 13,000 children and adults as they face the challenges of a family members terminal diagnosis or death. Along with distributing more than 100,000 in financial aid, brighter days free education and support programs have helped families find hopeful ways to process their grief while honoring their loved one. By far, their most important accomplishment is sending a proclamation to our governor to have children's grief awareness day become an officially recognized date in minnesota. Each third thursday of november, brighter days will lead the children's grief awareness day initiative by speaking to local schools and organizations about the importance of acknowledging children's grief. This day illuminates the need for education and awareness about a cause that is often overlooked and ignored, and the signed proclamation is displayed at the center. 2024 was another year of record…
$409,390 spentof which $9,752 as grants90% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$46,400 spent10% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $455,790.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2019 to 2020, from $17k to $317k (+1715%).
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.
100% of BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 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
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $6k → $79k.
8 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER’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
BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
81% 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 BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 53% · 2020 38% · 2021 36% · 2022 56% · 2023 25% — 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
57% of BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
95% of BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $222k 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
BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER
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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER: 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 BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER?
- BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER (Minnesota) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,298,771 to it, the largest being SMILE AGAIN GRIEF MINISTRIES INC ($694,890). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $1,298,771 in grants to BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER?
- SMILE AGAIN GRIEF MINISTRIES INC is the largest funder on record, with $694,890 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRIGHTER DAYS FAMILY GRIEF CENTER 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 Brighter Days Family Grief Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 22 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