North Carolina · Nonprofit
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS (North Carolina) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,311,337 to it, the largest being LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION & REFUGEE SERVICE INC DBA GLOBAL REFUGE ($51,994,754). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $40M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $55M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas does
Mission
See schedule o Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (lfs) is dedicated to one simple goal, improving the lives of the most vulnerable populations in north and south carolina. The lfs mission statement is, "empowered by christ, we walk together with all we serve." lfs helps place children in loving foster and adoptive homes; provides comprehensive services to adults with special needs; helps those with severe and persistent mental illness manage symptoms; aids veterans in regaining independence; helps refugees acclimate to life in a new country; counsels families in their time of need and more.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Lfs offers family and therapeutic foster care to meet the special physical and emotional needs of vulnerable children in our care. Some of these children suffer from medical problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and drug addiction. Older children can have emotional and behavioral issues and are given counseling when needed. Many families will have the opportunity to adopt when reunification with a child's biological family is not possible. Finding permanent, safe, and supportive families for children is the goal of lfs foster care.
$17,570,914 spentof which $4,658,709 as grants$10,756,490 earned by the program55% of program spendingLfs provides residential services for adults coping with various degrees of autism, developmental disability, mental illness, and symptoms resulting from traumatic brain injury. Self-sufficiency is taught and encouraged in these homes, though many clients will live out their lives with lfs.
$13,529,604 spent$8,282,497 earned by the program42% of program spendingOther program services include adoption, counseling, refugee, community - based partnership initiatives and disaster response.
$846,599 spent$518,268 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $31,947,117.
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 $8.1M to $12M (+54%).
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 13% · 2018 16% · 2019 10% · 2020 10% · 2021 13% · 2022 33% · 2023 37% · 2024 51% · 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Doug Nelson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $13M.
13 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 29 of 30 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
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 94% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 98% · 2019 86% · 2020 86% · 2021 80% · 2022 93% · 2023 96% — 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 LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $936k 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
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,396 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$860k
- Department of Veterans Affairs$207k
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 LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 37 related entities
- Lutheran Retirement Center - Salisbury · exempt
- Lsa Pharmacy Inc · exempt
- Lsa Management Inc · exempt
- Lutheran Home - Forsyth County Inc · exempt
- Lutheran Home at Trinity Oaks Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS: 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 LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS?
- LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS (North Carolina) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,311,337 to it, the largest being LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION & REFUGEE SERVICE INC DBA GLOBAL REFUGE ($51,994,754). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $55,311,337 in grants to LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS?
- LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION & REFUGEE SERVICE INC DBA GLOBAL REFUGE is the largest funder on record, with $51,994,754 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS 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 Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas →
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 30 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