Wisconsin · Nonprofit
RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (Wisconsin) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,210,761 to it, the largest being LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION ($1,567,406). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.4M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $4.2M
- Net assets
- $4.4M
What Riverworks Development Corporation does
Mission
Riverworks Development Corporation (rdc) drives social and economic development by aligning residents and businesses with specialized resources that strengthen harambee, riverwest and surrounding communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Financial clinic: empowers milwaukee's low- to moderate-income residents with free, professional financial counseling, tax preparation, and community-based financial education. Through one-on-one coaching, vita tax services, debt management, financial goal setting, and banking access support, the program helps residents improve credit, reduce debt, build savings, and achieve long-term financial stability. In partnership with the city of milwaukee financial empowerment center, riverworks continues to expand access to free, high-quality, no-cost financial services. In 2025, the financial clinic served 440 residents through 2,482 appointments, including 1,170 documented counseling sessions, with 660 total visits reflecting strong engagement and repeat participation. Program outcomes demonstrate meaningful impact, with 266 total outcomes achieved, including 91 clients reaching at least one outcome and 62 earning-defined achievements. Clients collectively increased savings by $52,876 and reduced non-mortgage debt by $541,424. The program also expanded its community education efforts through a legacy planning workshop pilot and a high-volume vita tax season, further strengthening its…
$706,839 spent$28,125 earned by the program40% of program spendingNeighborhood development: collaborates with residents and other stakeholders to create a vibrant community that reflects the culture and values of the harambee and riverwest neighborhoods. This includes activating and revitalizing public spaces with art and culture, facilitating community improvement and safety projects, and connecting residents and homeowners to resources. In 2025, residents engaged in the beerline shuffle, music on the beerline, the riverwest farmers market, the 53212marketplace series, community meetings, 7 neighborhood clean ups, and other events that unite the harambee and riverwest communities. The beerline trail neighborhood development project continued to ensure the next phases of trail development serve the needs of the community, and that other development inspired by and centered around the trail benefits residents equitably.
$325,351 spent$88,359 earned by the program19% of program spendingRiverworks cleans: hires community members who have barriers to employment through this social enterprise program. They serve the community by cleaning up sidewalks and curbs, vacant lots and commercial districts. Services include litter and graffiti removal, minor landscaping, streetscape maintenance, event services, and returning stolen property. Contracts include the city of milwaukee, business improvement districts (bids), and private businesses. In 2025, riverworks cleans worked in 6 milwaukee bids and collected 118,000 gallons of litter, emptied 788 overflowing public trash receptacles, removed 16 pieces of graffiti, cleaned up 55 illegal dumps, and returned 196 shopping carts. Riverworks cleans also completed 1,340 illegal dump work orders issued by the city of milwaukee, resulting in 5,967 cubic yards of debris removed from city-owned properties. Additionally, riverworks cleans provided disposal and cleaning services at 9 community events, performed landscaping, snow removal and litter pick up for 7 monthly commercial property contracts, and serviced 11 one-time commercial / residential trash pick-ups.
$516,200 spent$420,713 earned by the program29% of program spendingReal estate development: leads catalytic residential and commercial projects which have a positive economic and social impact on the community. The four core values are: create jobs, stabilize the tax base, repurpose vacant & blighted properties, and generate revenue for rdc's programs. The riverworks city center, completed in 2018, houses the offices for rdc staff, as well as a laundromat, a local business' event space, a space rented to family dollar, and the beerline plaza. The riverworks lofts, completed in 2012, has one- and two- bedroom loft-style apartments on the intersection of holton and townsend. The riverworks commons, completed in 2004, is a shopping center on capitol drive with 21,000 square feet of retail space. The connector building, completed in 2024, is a 2,900 square foot space adjacent to the beerline trail that is home to kuumba juice & coffeehouse and a multi-use community room.
$205,830 spent$4,972 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,754,220.
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 $6.4M to $7.1M (+11%).
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 26% · 2018 27% · 2019 23% · 2020 19% · 2021 21% · 2022 23% · 2023 25% · 2024 41% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
74% of RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (60% 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
Darryl Johnson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $174k → $1.1M.
7 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION’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
RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
63% 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 RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 67% · 2019 48% · 2020 26% · 2021 48% · 2022 33% · 2023 68% — 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
88% of RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Wisconsin, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $713k 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
RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,299 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,299 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $268k on record.
- Department of the Treasury$193k
- National Endowment for the Arts$75k
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 RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 7 related entities
- 3901 N Richards St LLC · disregarded
- 3372 N Holton St LLC · disregarded
- Five Point Exchange Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Riverworks City Center LLC · disregarded
- Keefe Avenue Crossing LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: 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 RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION?
- RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (Wisconsin) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,210,761 to it, the largest being LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION ($1,567,406). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $4,210,761 in grants to RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION?
- LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,567,406 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RIVERWORKS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 26 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