North Carolina · Nonprofit
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA (North Carolina) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,761,116 to it, the largest being For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) ($1,536,276). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $992k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $2.8M
- Net assets
- $474k
What First North Carolina does
Mission
The mission of First North Carolina is to provide life-changing high school robotics programs that give young people the skills, confidence, and resilience to build a better world. Continued on schedule oFirst North Carolina aims to help students thrive in a high-tech world with a passion for skilled trades, engineering, computer science, and corporate problem-solving. First's hands-on approach enables students to explore these fields and discover where their interests and aptitudes fit.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The first robotics competition (frc) program served high school students and mentors across north carolina. During the winter build season, teams designed, prototyped, built, tested, and programmed robots to compete in the first "crescendo" season. Teams participated in district qualifying events for awards, including the impact award, dean's list, woodie flowers, and many more. Teamwork, gracious professionalism, perseverance, and communication are the key components that make first "more than robots."
$1,027,829 spent$35,707 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,027,829.
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 2019 to 2020, from $252k to $376k (+49%).
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 18% · 2022 20% · 2023 20% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of FIRST NORTH CAROLINA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (83% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $240k → $281k.
10 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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: $20k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Triangle Community Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money FIRST NORTH CAROLINA raised.
From the IRS filings of FIRST NORTH CAROLINA’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
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
78% 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 FIRST NORTH CAROLINA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 78% · 2019 87% · 2020 81% · 2021 56% · 2022 53% · 2023 36% — 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
22% of FIRST NORTH CAROLINA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% 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
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $529k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
FIRST NORTH CAROLINA has grown faster than half of the 3,734 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,734 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FIRST NORTH CAROLINA
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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
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 FIRST NORTH CAROLINA: 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 FIRST NORTH CAROLINA?
- FIRST NORTH CAROLINA (North Carolina) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,761,116 to it, the largest being For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) ($1,536,276). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FIRST NORTH CAROLINA have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $2,761,116 in grants to FIRST NORTH CAROLINA, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FIRST NORTH CAROLINA?
- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is the largest funder on record, with $1,536,276 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FIRST NORTH CAROLINA 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 First North Carolina →
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 22 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