Washington · Nonprofit
ESSENTIALS FIRST
ESSENTIALS FIRST (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,027,564 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($462,350). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $406k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $275k
What Essentials First does
Mission
Provide hygiene items and food care to individuals and families in need
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
2024 was a big year, with three new locations and more than twice the number of clients picking up hygiene kits. Our newest location in Kent opened in a larger space on September 7, 2024. Our team continues working hard to keep up with the need and make sure everyone has dignified, reliable access to hygiene essentials. Our organization is unique; we are the only one systematically addressing hygiene insecurity in our region. As we face an immense and growing need for hygiene, our amazing staff, volunteers, and supporters continue showing up every day to keep the shelves full and doors open with warmth, creativity, and a shared vision for a healthier future. In 2024, the EF Community Kits Program provided essential hygiene supplies and other supports to 4,385 households made up of 15,232 individuals. Essentials First staff & Volunteers packed thousands of Essential Hygiene Kits and Street Kits Hosted hygiene drives with their schools, coworkers, churches, clubs, teams, and communities. We hosted tables at dozens of community outreach events, supported youth leaders in learning about and acting to address hygiene access inequity in their own homes, at school, and in their…
$328,343 spent100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $328,343.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $138k to $240k (+73%).
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: 2022 0% · 2023 20% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of ESSENTIALS FIRST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
Nickhath Sheriff
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $94k → $133k.
6 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 ESSENTIALS FIRST’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
ESSENTIALS FIRST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 ESSENTIALS FIRST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 62% · 2022 95% · 2023 76% — 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.
Where its funders are
97% of ESSENTIALS FIRST'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 $30k that is directly attributable, 53% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $998k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
ESSENTIALS FIRST has grown faster 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 ESSENTIALS FIRST
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
75% 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 ESSENTIALS FIRST: 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 ESSENTIALS FIRST?
- ESSENTIALS FIRST (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,027,564 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($462,350). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ESSENTIALS FIRST have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,027,564 in grants to ESSENTIALS FIRST, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ESSENTIALS FIRST?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $462,350 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ESSENTIALS FIRST 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.
Play a game about who funds Essentials First →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 10 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