North Carolina · Nonprofit
CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY
CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY (North Carolina) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,573,548 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($476,507). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $955k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $778k
What City Lights Ministry does
Mission
Ministry committed to sharing the gospel and meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of children who are faced with poverty, food insecurity, or feel hopeless through counseling, eduction, and early learning development.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Assist children and adults in the community through counseling, educational classes, and early childhood services.
$364,490 spentof which $120 as grants95% of program spendingFeed underprivileged children
$9,295 spent2% of program spendingProvide beds for children
$11,422 spent3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $385,207.
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 $83k to $1.1M (+1238%).
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: 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY’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. 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $8k → $175k.
14 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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 CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 20 of 21 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
CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
95% 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 CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 74% · 2020 100% · 2021 63% · 2022 31% · 2023 63% — 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
75% of CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
88% of CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $181k that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY 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 CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY: 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 CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY?
- CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY (North Carolina) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,573,548 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($476,507). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $1,573,548 in grants to CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $476,507 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITY LIGHTS MINISTRY 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.
Play a game about who funds City Lights Ministry →
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 21 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