Washington · Nonprofit
Downtown Emergency Service Center
Downtown Emergency Service Center (Washington) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,234,297 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($3,088,000). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $103M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $32M
What Downtown Emergency Service Center does
Mission
DESC helps people with the complex needs of homelessness, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness achieve their highest potential for health and well-being through comprehensive services, treatment, and housing.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Clinical Programs: DESC is dedicated to serving people experiencing homelessness and is a state licensed provider of behavioral healthcare treatment for people with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders. Integrated mental health, substance use disorder and co-occurring disorders treatment is available in DESC's shelters, is interwoven into its supportive housing programs, and is available through stand-alone programs at DESC's clinical offices or elsewhere in the community. In 2024, DESC's clinical programs served 6,988 people.
$40,865,805 spentof which $197,622 as grants$1,948,175 earned by the program51% of program spendingTotal Housing Programs: In 2024, DESC operated 1566 permanent supportive housing apartments in seventeen project-based programs ranging from 40 units to 190 Units, all of which feature 24/7 onsite support staff and integrated clinical services. DESC also manages, subsidizes and services 49 Master-leased Market rate "scattered site" housing units with intensive case management and other support services as needed. Another 250+ clients are supported with case management and rent subsidies controlled by DESC. DESC's units house individuals coming from homelessness, all of whom have special needs including mental illness, physical disability, and involvement with the criminal justice system and/or substance use problems. (Continued on Schedule O)DESC provides a range of supportive services to help residents remain stably housed. Social service programs are funded by a combination of city, county, state and federal grants, as well as by private fundraising.
$34,149,312 spentof which $508,171 as grants$6,190,710 earned by the program43% of program spendingHousing Development: DESC develops and operates subsidized supportive housing for individuals experiencing homelessness with disabilities.
$4,615,969 spent$1,422,208 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $79,631,086.
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 2023 to 2024, from $111M to $133M (+20%).
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 82% · 2018 78% · 2019 76% · 2020 73% · 2021 72% · 2022 71% · 2023 81% · 2024 82%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of Downtown Emergency Service Center’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (1% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Daniel Malone
Executive Director
Board chair
Sandeep Kaushik
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 35 funders, grant income fell $1.9M → $1.4M.
25 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 Downtown Emergency Service Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 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
Downtown Emergency Service Center has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
73% 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 Downtown Emergency Service Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 26% · 2019 27% · 2020 36% · 2021 21% · 2022 25% · 2023 23% — 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
45% of Downtown Emergency Service Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
55% of Downtown Emergency Service Center'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 $8.7M that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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
Downtown Emergency Service Center holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,076 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,076 health nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Government funding Downtown Emergency Service Center receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.4M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$6.4M
- Department of Health and Human Services$985k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Downtown Emergency Service 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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% 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
Part of a family of 18 related entities
- DESC Development LLC · disregarded
- DESC Lake City LLLP · disregarded
- DESC Belmont · disregarded
- DESC Rainier Housing LP · disregarded
- DESC Hobson Clinic QALICB · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Downtown Emergency Service 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 Downtown Emergency Service Center?
- Downtown Emergency Service Center (Washington) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,234,297 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($3,088,000). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Downtown Emergency Service Center have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $19,234,297 in grants to Downtown Emergency Service Center, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Downtown Emergency Service Center?
- GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,088,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Downtown Emergency Service Center find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 99 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