Oregon · Nonprofit
MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)
MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) (Oregon) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,389,349 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($300,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $352k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $202k
What Microenterprise Resources Initiative & Training (Merit) does
Mission
Help people start, launch and grow successful small businesses through training and support.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Microenterprise resources, initiatives & training (merit dba prosperidad oregon)- merit's mission is to help people explore, launch, and grow successful small businesses through training, support, financial education, access to capital, and more. In the past year, merit served around 184 participants through business development training, financial education, specialized business workshops, and access to capital.
$96,906 spent$4,467 earned by the program40% of program spendingAccess to capital program- merit provided individual development accounts (idas) for small business and retirement savings. The program successfully graduated four participants and enrolled thirteen additional accounts to support small business and retirement goals.
$72,678 spent30% of program spendingMicroenterprise resources, initiatives & training - merit offered more than 450 hours of group training and individualized coaching to aspiring and existing small business owners seeking to start or expand their businesses. - 12 workshops total of 32 classes each being about 2.5 hours average - 184 of clients served - average of 467.36 hours in classes or in coaching including all participants - 13 new ida's
$72,678 spent30% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $242,262.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2020 to 2021, from $26k to $224k (+777%).
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: 2019 46% · 2020 86% · 2021 52% · 2022 25% · 2023 65% · 2024 15% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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
Claudia Maciel
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 5 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $213k → $117k.
3 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)’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
MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
48% 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 MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT).
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 65% · 2019 55% · 2020 54% · 2021 68% · 2022 59% · 2023 58% — growing more concentrated.
“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
63% of MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)'s funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
63% of MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)'s grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $326k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) has grown faster than half of the 7,175 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $175k on record.
- Department of the Treasury$125k
- Department of Agriculture$50k
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 MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)
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 Oregon
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
71%
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 MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT): 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 MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)?
- MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) (Oregon) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,389,349 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($300,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,389,349 in grants to MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT), 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT)?
- MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MICROENTERPRISE RESOURCES INITIATIVE & TRAINING (MERIT) find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Microenterprise Resources Initiative & Training (Merit) →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 10 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