Texas · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME
FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME (Texas) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $268,721 to it, the largest being The Josephine Hughes Sterling Foundation ($115,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $631k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $269k
- Net assets
- $400k
What Friends of Down Syndrome does
Mission
The Friends of Down Syndromes mission is to create a lifelong of education and learning opportunities for teens and adults with down syndrome through education, socialization, and community outreach.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Down syndrome academy opened on january 6th 2014 with 17 clients and ended the year 2020 with approximately 100+ clients. The down syndrome academy serves as a post high school eductaion program for our adults to both maintain as well as increase academic skills. These targeted skills include reading, math, science, counting/managing money, and computer skills. Participants attend classes five days a week from 8am to 3:15pm. All particpants are assessed when they enter the program and goals are developed based on participants assessment result
$437,229 spent$438,802 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $437,229.
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 2018 to 2019, from $360k to $2.9M (+714%).
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 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
19% of FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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 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.
Chief executive
Gina Marie
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $10k → $57k.
6 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 DOWN SYNDROME’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 DOWN SYNDROME leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 DOWN SYNDROME.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 94% · 2019 86% · 2020 69% · 2021 93% · 2022 98% · 2023 50% — 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
50% of FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
51% of FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME'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 $131k that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $138k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 13,917 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,917 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% 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 FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME: 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 FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME?
- FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME (Texas) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $268,721 to it, the largest being The Josephine Hughes Sterling Foundation ($115,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $268,721 in grants to FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME?
- The Josephine Hughes Sterling Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF DOWN SYNDROME find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Down Syndrome →
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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing