South Carolina · Nonprofit
Increasing HOPE
Increasing HOPE (South Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,618,816 to it, the largest being South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development ($343,077). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $331k
What Increasing HOPE does
Mission
The mission of Increasing H.O.P.E financial training center is to create financial freedom and stability for families in South Carolina by building assets through financial education and training.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Broad Community Impact Summary Increasing H.O.P.E. Financial Training Center delivers financial education, housing counseling, and small business training to clients across Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. The organization helps families achieve homeownership, supported small business owners through the I-HOPE Women's Business Center, and provided free tax preparation services to clients. These efforts provides significant economic impact, reflecting our commitment to fostering long-term financial stability and community resilience among low- to moderate-income residents.Focused Program Accomplishments Increasing H.O.P.E. expanded its financial literacy and economic empowerment programs. We supported individuals through financial education and counseling, assisting families in achieving homeownership, and provided small business coaching through our Women's Business Center. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program helps maximize refunds and build financial security to our clients. New ServiceBeginning in February 2026, a collaborative partnership between the City of Charleston and Increasing H.O.P.E. Financial Training Center launched "The Charleston…
$581,700 spent$29,290 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $581,700.
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 2024 to 2025, from $235k to $508k (+117%).
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: 2017 25% · 2018 12% · 2019 26% · 2020 36% · 2021 17% · 2022 33% · 2023 26% · 2024 37% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Increasing HOPE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Dorthea Bernique
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 12 funders, grant income rose $12k → $443k.
10 of 26 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.
From the IRS filings of Increasing HOPE’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
Increasing HOPE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 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 Increasing HOPE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 63% · 2021 27% · 2022 35% · 2023 32% — 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
57% of Increasing HOPE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
Increasing HOPE draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside South Carolina, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $312k 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
Increasing HOPE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Increasing HOPE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Small Business Administration$863k
- Corporation for National and Community Service$155k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Increasing HOPE
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 South Carolina
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.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Increasing HOPE: 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 Increasing HOPE?
- Increasing HOPE (South Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,618,816 to it, the largest being South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development ($343,077). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Increasing HOPE have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,618,816 in grants to Increasing HOPE, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Increasing HOPE?
- South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development is the largest funder on record, with $343,077 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Increasing HOPE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South 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 Increasing HOPE →
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 26 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