North Carolina · Nonprofit
Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc
Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,510,058 to it, the largest being DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST ($939,200). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $967k
What Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc does
Mission
To empower children and their families to reach their full potential through advocacy, education and services. As Communities In Schools, we surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Overall Organizational Highlights: -We served over 2,660 children with our direct services and academic supports through our AmeriCorps program. This is a conservative estimate, as many were served immediately following Hurricane Helene without a consistent tracking system, so those figures were not captured. -Last year, 4 community members volunteered their time at our Learning Centers, and the Family Resource Center, totaling 631 hours.
$1,464,919 spentof which $7,524 as grants$87,998 earned by the program100% of program spendingCommunities In Schools (CIS) Student Support Specialists: Children First/(CIS) student support specialist programs at Claxton, Johnston, Hall Fletcher, Oakley, Estes, and Emma Elementary Schools and Eblen Intermediate School empower students to stay in school and achieve in life. Operations at these sites is based one a school-based student support site plan. Plans include services that address identified school-wide needs or build and reinforce student assets. It also identifies services for specific students at high risk of eventually dropping out of school. 97% of our case-managed students qualified for the Free & Reduced Lunch program. We had 229 case managed students and served 2,215 students with Tier I (school-wide) services.
Children First/Communities In Schools (CIS) Learning Centers are safe haven afterschool programs that provide academic assistance, healthy snacks and enrichment activities for up to 43 at-risk elementary aged children. 28 students also participated in a 6-week summer camp that offers a variety of enrichment and education opportunities, and 7 students participated in tennis at Eblen. The Learning Centers strengthen the connection between student, school, parent and community, which is a key element in helping an at-risk child succeed in school and prepare for life. We had a 95% promotion rate for our 229 case-managed students. . Other notable accomplishments for FY 2025: *Project POWER AmeriCorps members served 243 youths and recruited 375 volunteers who provided 2,667 hours of community service. *The Family Resource Centers served 193 individuals with food boxes, 60 individuals received emergency financial assistance,202 students received backpacks and school supplies, and 332 children received gifts during Holiday Giving. *Childern First/(CIS) supports advocacy by serving as the fiscal sponsor of the Western North Carolina Early Childhood Coalition (WNC ECC). This collaboration…
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,464,919.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $1.6M to $1.1M (−30%).
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: 2017 40% · 2018 40% · 2019 36% · 2020 37% · 2021 40% · 2022 31% · 2023 57% · 2024 56% · 2025 43%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Natasha Adwaters
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 9 funders, grant income rose $147k → $573k.
6 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 25 of 26 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
Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 69% · 2019 66% · 2020 38% · 2021 38% · 2022 39% · 2023 74% — 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
36% of Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
96% of Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $559k 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.
Organizations like Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County 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 Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc?
- Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,510,058 to it, the largest being DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST ($939,200). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $2,510,058 in grants to Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc?
- DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $939,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Children FirstCommunities In Schools of Buncombe County Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 26 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