Missouri · Nonprofit
OPERATION BBQ RELIEF
OPERATION BBQ RELIEF (Missouri) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,667,597 to it, the largest being MUSK FOUNDATION ($1,975,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 101
- Grants received
- $7.7M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Operation Bbq Relief does
Mission
Operation Bbq Relief provides comfort to those in need by connecting, inspiring, serving, and educating in communities far and wide.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
From missouri to jamaica, obr delivered 305,568 hot meals across 12 disaster deployments in 2025 at an average program cost of under $11 per meal, a figure that includes full mobilization, volunteer coordination, fuel, equipment, and logistics, making obr one of the most cost-effective large-scale disaster feeding operations in the country. A capability few volunteer base disaster relief organizations in the world can match.
$5,791,230 spentof which $1,364,712 as grants$-22,136 earned by the program83% of program spendingCamp obr's programs utilize culinary therapy, a structured, evidence-informed approach using hands-on cooking to build peer connection, process shared trauma, and restore purpose alongside outdoor adventure and mental wellness programming. Post-program feedback consistently reflects meaningful improvements in participants' reported sense of community and well-being. Housed at obr's permanently owned lake of the ozarks facility, a $5.26 million long-term organizational asset. Camp obr is built for sustained, scalable impact for years to come.
$1,125,297 spent16% of program spendingThe always serving project is a year-round initiative of Operation Bbq Relief dedicated to serving military members, veterans, first responders, and communities facing hunger. Through culinary therapy, community barbecue events, and educational programming, the always serving project connects, inspires, educates, and serves communities with the healing power of bbq beyond moments of disaster. Programming includes the bbq academy, which equips service members, veterans, and first responders with hands-on barbecue skills as a means of connection and community service, and days of giving events that provide hot meals year-round to food-insecure communities. During 2025, the always serving project engaged 2,215 volunteers across 127 events, contributing 31,435 hours of service over 886 deployment days.
$81,544 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,998,071.
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 2019 to 2020, from $3.2M to $14M (+326%).
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 0% · 2020 77% · 2021 45% · 2022 46% · 2023 37% · 2024 40%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of OPERATION BBQ RELIEF’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. 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
Stanley L Hays
Co-founder/CEO
Board chair
William A Cleaver
Co-founder/board chair/cao
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $145k → $631k.
21 of 101 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 OPERATION BBQ RELIEF’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 101 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
OPERATION BBQ RELIEF has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
57% 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 OPERATION BBQ RELIEF.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 72% · 2018 56% · 2019 39% · 2020 28% · 2021 37% · 2022 45% · 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
32% of OPERATION BBQ RELIEF's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
OPERATION BBQ RELIEF draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Missouri, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
OPERATION BBQ RELIEF's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 22 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding OPERATION BBQ RELIEF receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.0M on record.
- FOOD SERVICES $6.4M
- CONTRACTED SERVICES - OTHER $630k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $756
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 OPERATION BBQ RELIEF
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Lake Camp Properties LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPERATION BBQ RELIEF: 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 OPERATION BBQ RELIEF?
- OPERATION BBQ RELIEF (Missouri) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,667,597 to it, the largest being MUSK FOUNDATION ($1,975,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPERATION BBQ RELIEF have?
- IRS filings report 101 organizations giving $7,667,597 in grants to OPERATION BBQ RELIEF, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPERATION BBQ RELIEF?
- MUSK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,975,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPERATION BBQ RELIEF find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 101 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