Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
GIRLS FIRST
GIRLS FIRST (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $851,226 to it, the largest being Servant Foundation ($440,000). 13 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 FY2025
- $330k
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $851k
- Net assets
- $129k
What Girls First does
Mission
To build character, instill a positive sense of self, and provide tangible life skills through a creative curriculum of arts exploration, academic reinforcement, and emotional learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
PROGRAM SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The programs in place provide a safe, stable environment where students practice respect for self and others, discover new skills and talents, and develop tools that will allow them to achieve greater success in school and beyond. The enrichment programs in place to help elementary school girls are creative studies in dance, visual arts, drama, and music; academic support; life skills development; field trips; daily nutritional meals; STEAM activities; and trusting relationships with caring adults. The current enrollment of approximately 30 girls comes from schools in the Norristown area school district, and outreach programming is also provided to even more students in the cities of Chester and Philadelphia.
$231,805 spent$43,183 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $231,805.
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 2022 to 2023, from $277k to $164k (−41%).
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.
73% of GIRLS FIRST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% 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.
Board chair
Cheri Mitchell
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $33k → $120k.
5 of 27 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 GIRLS 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
GIRLS FIRST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 52% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
59% 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 GIRLS FIRST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 39% · 2019 66% · 2020 60% · 2021 37% · 2022 78% · 2023 42% — 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 GIRLS FIRST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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 GIRLS 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 $380k that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $471k 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
GIRLS FIRST has grown faster than half of the 17,450 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like GIRLS 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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GIRLS 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 GIRLS FIRST?
- GIRLS FIRST (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $851,226 to it, the largest being Servant Foundation ($440,000). 13 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 GIRLS FIRST have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $851,226 in grants to GIRLS FIRST, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GIRLS FIRST?
- Servant Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $440,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GIRLS FIRST find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Girls First →
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 27 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