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Maryland · Nonprofit

INNOVATION WORKS INC

INNOVATION WORKS INC (Maryland) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,448,330 to it, the largest being JPMORGAN CHASE FOUNDATION ($1,070,475). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.8M
Funders on record
36
Grants received
$5.4M
Net assets
$1.5M
23/36 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 80%
01What it does

What Innovation Works Inc does

Mission

The corporation will develop sustainable neighborhood economies in depressed areas by: igniting interest in sustainable social enterprise, helping individuals transform challenges into opportunities, creating sustainable social enterprises, growing family wage jobs, and scaling local solutions to national markets. Training and developing entrepreneurs will be a top priority through programming and education.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Social enterprise development pipeline

    $579,141 spent
    57% of program spending
  2. Strategic initiatives, focused on sector-based economic development.

    $100,591 spent
    10% of program spending
  3. Program support contracts, for organizational capacity development including curriculum development and impact data measurement.

    $327,604 spent
    33% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,007,336.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($262k) Expenses 100 ($53k) Net assets 100 ($209k)2019 Revenue 186 ($487k) Expenses 720 ($380k) Net assets 151 ($316k)2020 Revenue 324 ($847k) Expenses 984 ($519k) Net assets 308 ($644k)2021 Revenue 331 ($868k) Expenses 1875 ($989k) Net assets 364 ($762k)2022 Revenue 474 ($1.2M) Expenses 1829 ($965k) Net assets 551 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 541 ($1.4M) Expenses 2425 ($1.3M) Net assets 620 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 547 ($1.4M) Expenses 2702 ($1.4M) Net assets 624 ($1.3M)2025 Revenue 704 ($1.8M) Expenses 3301 ($1.7M) Net assets 733 ($1.5M)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (704)Expenses (3301)Net assets (733)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 2024 to 2025, from $1.3M to $2.1M (+55%).

$209k
$316k
$667k
$839k
$1.2M
$1.3M
$1.3M
$2.1M
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 10% · 2019 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

99% of INNOVATION WORKS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,434 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$209k
’18
$107k
’19
$328k
’20
−$122k
’21
$276k
’22
$137k
’23
$7k
’24
$101k
’25
5.4
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.

Chief executive

A Jay Nwachu

CEO

Board chair

Tina Rodriguez

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed613131515151715
Joined·+7+1+4+1+7+2+0
No longer listed·0121702
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $125k → $1.1M.

11 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 INNOVATION WORKS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. 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

INNOVATION WORKS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left

37% 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 INNOVATION WORKS INC.

20%
largest funder
37%
top three
~13
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 40% · 2019 33% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 23% · 2023 18% — 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

58% of INNOVATION WORKS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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

56% of INNOVATION WORKS INC's grant income comes from Maryland funders.

MN
NY
PA
CA
MD
DE
NC
FL

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

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maryland out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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

INNOVATION WORKS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · below the median
Months of reserve5.4mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)32% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like INNOVATION WORKS INC

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 Maryland

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

58% of spending goes to programs.

Program 58%Management 26%Fundraising 16%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

33%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MD

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Ignite Capital Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for INNOVATION WORKS INC: 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 INNOVATION WORKS INC?
INNOVATION WORKS INC (Maryland) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,448,330 to it, the largest being JPMORGAN CHASE FOUNDATION ($1,070,475). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does INNOVATION WORKS INC have?
IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $5,448,330 in grants to INNOVATION WORKS INC, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of INNOVATION WORKS INC?
JPMORGAN CHASE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,070,475 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like INNOVATION WORKS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 36 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