Arizona · Nonprofit
MESA UNITED WAY INC
MESA UNITED WAY INC (Arizona) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $517,875 to it, the largest being MERCY CARE ($125,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $518k
- Net assets
- $1.9M
What Mesa United Way Inc does
Mission
United we fight for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in Mesa.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 1966, Mesa United Way operates as a nonprofit philanthropic corporation under the State of Arizona laws. Historically a staunch supporter of addressing the poverty challenges faced by vulnerable populations, Mesa United Way continues to enhance community partnerships which align with this goal. In particular, Mesa United Way focuses on funding solutions related to the day-to-day needs of foster/kinship children, housing and self-sufficiency for youth aging out of foster care, free tax assistance and financial literacy for low- and moderate-income households, affordable housing for the chronically disabled and working poor, and the critically important work of improving childhood literacy. To do all this, Mesa United Way depends on individual and corporate contributions. Launched by Mesa United Way in 2009, the Helens Hope Chest program focused on the needs of foster and kinship children from infancy through early childhood. In 2014, Helens Hope Chest became a legal entity of its own but operated as a subsidiary under Mesa United Way. Never sitting on its laurels, Mesa United Way continued creating more programs that filled more gapsVITA, Foster360, 12Books and the Mesa…
$582,771 spentof which $477,366 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $582,771.
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 2023 to 2024, from $4.5M to $2.3M (−48%).
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: 2020 5% · 2021 11% · 2022 32% · 2023 31% · 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of MESA UNITED WAY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Mark Young
President & CEO
Board chair
Cathy Grosso
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $10k → $78k.
8 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.3M from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Mesa United Way Inc); $456k from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Tulsa Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money MESA UNITED WAY INC raised.
From the IRS filings of MESA UNITED WAY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 12 of 13 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
MESA UNITED WAY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
100% 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 MESA UNITED WAY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 64% · 2019 52% · 2020 52% · 2021 43% · 2022 44% · 2023 41% — 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
20% of MESA UNITED WAY INC'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
62% of MESA UNITED WAY INC'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 $199k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $319k 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.
Against its field
MESA UNITED WAY INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MESA UNITED WAY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $887k on record.
- Department of the Treasury$887k
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 MESA UNITED WAY 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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% 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 3 related entities
- Azura Inc · exempt
- Helens Hope Chest · exempt
- Foster360 · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MESA UNITED WAY 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.
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 MESA UNITED WAY INC?
- MESA UNITED WAY INC (Arizona) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $517,875 to it, the largest being MERCY CARE ($125,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MESA UNITED WAY INC have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $517,875 in grants to MESA UNITED WAY INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MESA UNITED WAY INC?
- MERCY CARE is the largest funder on record, with $125,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MESA UNITED WAY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 13 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