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North Carolina · Nonprofit

FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS

FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS (North Carolina) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,814,467 to it, the largest being The Max Stenbeck Charitable Fund ($1,116,678). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$254k
Funders on record
12
Grants received
$1.8M
Net assets
$7k
5/12 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Friends of Challenging Heights does

Mission

We raise funds to support Ghana-based NGO that rescues children from trafficking and provides them with education medical care and rehabilitation.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Womens empowerment program: teaching vulnerable women life skills that will help them secure employment and keep their kids safe from traffickers

    $250,000 spentof which $250,000 as grants$250,000 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. Not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending
  3. Not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending
  4. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $250,000.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($216k) Expenses 100 ($212k) Net assets 100 ($29k)2021 Revenue 265 ($572k) Expenses 272 ($576k) Net assets 88 ($25k)2022 Revenue 28 ($61k) Expenses 34 ($72k) Net assets 49 ($14k)2023 Revenue 219 ($472k) Expenses 223 ($473k) Net assets 47 ($14k)2024 Revenue 109 ($235k) Expenses 115 ($243k) Net assets 17 ($5k)2025 Revenue 118 ($254k) Expenses 119 ($251k) Net assets 26 ($7k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (118)Expenses (119)Net assets (26)Peer revenue range

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 $25k to $14k (−44%).

$29k
$25k
$14k
$14k
$5k
$7k
202020212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 7,828 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$4k
’20
−$3k
’21
−$11k
’22
−$548
’23
−$9k
’24
$3k
’25
0.4
months of
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.

20202021202320242025
Listed33333
Joined·+0·+0+0
No longer listed·0·00
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $20k → $482k.

4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS’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

FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

35% 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 FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS.

62%
largest funder
94%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 75% · 2019 98% · 2020 68% · 2021 64% · 2022 93% · 2023 95% — 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

38% of FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 6 states in all.

WA
IN
RI
CA
DE
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
North Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $113k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 3 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin1% · below the median
Months of reserve0.4mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

99% of spending goes to programs.

Program 99%Management 1%Fundraising 0%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

DC

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS: 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.

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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 FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS?
FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS (North Carolina) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,814,467 to it, the largest being The Max Stenbeck Charitable Fund ($1,116,678). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS have?
IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $1,814,467 in grants to FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS?
The Max Stenbeck Charitable Fund is the largest funder on record, with $1,116,678 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FRIENDS OF CHALLENGING HEIGHTS 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 Friends of Challenging Heights →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 12 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