Rhode Island · Nonprofit
Providence Student Union
Providence Student Union (Rhode Island) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,234,098 to it, the largest being NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ($714,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $566k
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $489k
What Providence Student Union does
Mission
Providence Student Union (PSU) builds student power to improve our education and well-being. We envision a true union for students" that increases young people's collective power and ensures our frustrations, demands, and dreams are heard. At PSU, young people grow as leaders, organizers, and advocates for justice in all forms, today and throughout their lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Youth Organizing & Leadership: Providence Student Union (PSU) builds youth power, organizes for policy change, and dismantles barriers to high-quality, culturally-affirming education for youth in Providence. PSU supports youth leaders by offering leadership training and mentorship, facilitating educational workshops and culture-building events, and providing a welcoming space for students to gather after school and access resources. Our youth leadership team (LT) continued to develop as the organization's key decision-making body (and part-time youth staff). Our LT members have gone on to take various leadership roles, facilitate a variety of workshops, coordinate events, speak at large gatherings, represent PSU in coalition spaces, and impact hundreds of their peers. In recognition of their hard work and dedication, we awarded the PSU youth leadership scholarship award to the six graduating LT members in 2025.
$472,350 spent100% of program spendingWell-Being Aid: The Well-Being Aid (WBA) is a mutual aid program that is directed by the WBA youth task force. While psu works towards systemic change in providence schools and beyond, we recognize that students are organizing under tough economic circumstances and that immediate issues can derail youth in their academic and organizing pursuits. Through the WBA fund, Providence high school students can apply for funds or in-kind support for food, transportation, rent, utilities, and other essentials. We aim to respond to significant needs that are not being addressed through other resources or programs. To offer more comprehensive support for students, we also provided referrals to verified community resources, opened a free clothing closet, and conducted a back-to-school supply drive.
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $472,350.
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 $389k to $728k (+87%).
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: 2021 11% · 2022 6% · 2023 0% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of Providence Student Union’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% 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.
Chief executive
Denezia M Fahie
Executive Director
Board chair
Stevent Cleto Garcia
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $81k → $370k.
6 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 Providence Student Union’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
Providence Student Union leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
88% 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 Providence Student Union.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 71% · 2019 83% · 2020 69% · 2021 67% · 2022 41% · 2023 38% — 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
27% of Providence Student Union's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
Providence Student Union draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $813k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Providence Student Union is better cushioned than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Providence Student Union
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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Providence Student Union: 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 Providence Student Union?
- Providence Student Union (Rhode Island) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,234,098 to it, the largest being NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ($714,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Providence Student Union have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $2,234,098 in grants to Providence Student Union, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Providence Student Union?
- NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $714,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Providence Student Union find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 25 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