Missouri · Nonprofit
OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC
OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC (Missouri) receives grants from 225 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,805,590 to it, the largest being Greater Kansas City Community Foundation ($6,321,588). 139 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 225
- Grants received
- $39M
- Net assets
- $47M
What Operation Breakthrough Inc does
Mission
To provide a safe, loving and educational environment for children in poverty and to empower their families through advocacy, emergency aid, and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Early childhood, school age, and parent services: during fiscal 2025, operation breakthrough operated at or near capacity serving approximately 400 preschoolers and infants in its early childhood education programs, 250 school aged children in its before/after school enrichment programs, and 300 high school students in its youth programs. Supportive services offered include health and wellness, family services, meals, and emergency assistance. Programs are primarily funded by contributions and grants and serve low-income families based on federal guidelines. The program also receives head start funds.
$17,393,857 spentof which $900,118 as grants$5,703,896 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $17,393,857.
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 $34M to $43M (+25%).
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 15% · 2018 19% · 2019 32% · 2020 33% · 2021 24% · 2022 27% · 2023 6% · 2024 28% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Mary Esselman
CEO
Board chair
Wendy Hill
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 45 funders to 86 funders, grant income fell $3.9M → $3.8M.
32 of 225 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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: $4k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest The Halperin Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC raised.
From the IRS filings of OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 225 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 BREAKTHROUGH INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
43% 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 BREAKTHROUGH INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 25% · 2019 35% · 2020 30% · 2021 17% · 2022 13% · 2023 11% — 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 OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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 BREAKTHROUGH INC draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside Missouri, across 29 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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 BREAKTHROUGH INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH 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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Operation Brighter Future Inc (Dissolved Fy25) · exempt
- Operation Breakthrough Foundation · exempt
- Minddrive Incorporated · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH 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 OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC?
- OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC (Missouri) receives grants from 225 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,805,590 to it, the largest being Greater Kansas City Community Foundation ($6,321,588). 139 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC have?
- IRS filings report 225 organizations giving $38,805,590 in grants to OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC, 139 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC?
- Greater Kansas City Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $6,321,588 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC 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 225 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