New York · Nonprofit
Building Skills NY
Building Skills NY (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,599,987 to it, the largest being ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION ($1,370,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $646k
What Building Skills NY does
Mission
See Schedule OProviding manpower training and related assistance and supportive services to unemployed and underemployed persons, particularly those from economically disadvantaged areas of the City and State of New York, including residents of New York City Housing Authority projects, in order to increase their self-sufficiency, maximize job opportunities and reduce unemployment in the City and State of New York.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Building Skills NY launched a construction industry employment initiative to hire New York City residents to work in the construction industry, and to create a career path for those hires who have the interest, capability and capacity to succeed in the construction trades. Participating developers and contractors ask their general contractors and subcontractors to commit to hire a number of Building Skills referrals over the course of the next year. These referrals are referred by public and not for profit agencies, are vetted by Building Skills, have an OSHA 30 and Site Safety Training certificate and are expected to have a minimal level of experience in construction. (Continued on Sch O) Contractors are asked to provide an opportunity for these new hires to work as laborers or helpers/assistants in their trades, and to evaluate them at the end of their employment. In addition to providing us with an assessment of their skills, contractors are asked to assess the prospects for these individuals to benefit for further training in a trade. We also ask if there are any other NYC residents working for the contractors who can also benefit from training. Building Skills is currently…
$1,610,951 spent$119,471 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,610,951.
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 2020 to 2021, from $401k to $573k (+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 20% · 2022 12% · 2023 15% · 2024 12% · 2025 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Building Skills NY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 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 Meade
Executive Director
Board chair
Jim Whelan
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income rose $200k → $330k.
1 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $170k from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Putting New Yorkers to Work Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Building Skills NY raised.
From the IRS filings of Building Skills NY’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
Building Skills NY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
79% 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 Building Skills NY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 75% · 2019 85% · 2020 72% · 2021 94% · 2022 62% · 2023 61% — 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
14% of Building Skills NY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
85% of Building Skills NY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $45k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Building Skills NY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Building Skills NY
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 New York
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
75%
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 Building Skills NY: 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 Building Skills NY?
- Building Skills NY (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,599,987 to it, the largest being ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION ($1,370,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Building Skills NY have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $2,599,987 in grants to Building Skills NY, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Building Skills NY?
- ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,370,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Building Skills NY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Building Skills NY →
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 12 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