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Ohio · Nonprofit

SAM'S FANS

SAM'S FANS (Ohio) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $405,011 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($123,880). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$439k
Funders on record
15
Grants received
$405k
Net assets
$425k
8/15 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 18%
01What it does

What Sam's Fans does

Mission

Sams fans is dedicated to the promotion of music and art therapy for children and their families facing life-threatening illnesses.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Sams fans currently organizes multiple events per year in central ohio to raise awareness.

    $422,376 spentof which $232,500 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $422,376.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($160k) Expenses 100 ($55k) Net assets 100 ($188k)2018 Revenue 149 ($238k) Expenses 413 ($228k) Net assets 106 ($199k)2019 Revenue 161 ($257k) Expenses 315 ($174k) Net assets 150 ($282k)2020 Revenue 108 ($173k) Expenses 501 ($276k) Net assets 95 ($179k)2021 Revenue 204 ($327k) Expenses 476 ($262k) Net assets 129 ($243k)2022 Revenue 236 ($377k) Expenses 535 ($295k) Net assets 173 ($326k)2023 Revenue 234 ($374k) Expenses 743 ($410k) Net assets 154 ($290k)2024 Revenue 306 ($490k) Expenses 674 ($372k) Net assets 217 ($408k)2025 Revenue 274 ($439k) Expenses 766 ($422k) Net assets 226 ($425k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (274)Expenses (766)Net assets (226)Peer revenue range

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 $290k to $408k (+41%).

$188k
$199k
$282k
$179k
$243k
$326k
$290k
$408k
$425k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

63% of SAM'S FANS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 7,828 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$105k
’17
$10k
’18
$83k
’19
−$103k
’20
$65k
’21
$82k
’22
−$36k
’23
$118k
’24
$17k
’25
7.3
months of
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.

Board chair

Alethea Sabo

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed65557688
Joined·+0+1+0+3+0+2+0
No longer listed·1101100
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $1k → $39k.

6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 SAM'S FANS’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

SAM'S FANS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% 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

95% 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 SAM'S FANS.

31%
largest funder
65%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 55% · 2019 96% · 2020 62% · 2021 78% · 2022 79% · 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

43% of SAM'S FANS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

62% of SAM'S FANS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $152k that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from Ohio funders.

NY
OH
NJ
TN

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Ohio out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $253k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SAM'S FANS has grown faster than half of the 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits its size.

Operating margin4% · below the median
Months of reserve7.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)13% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like SAM'S FANS

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 Ohio

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

100% of spending goes to programs.

Program 100%Management 0%Fundraising 0%

Governance

8
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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 SAM'S FANS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 SAM'S FANS?
SAM'S FANS (Ohio) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $405,011 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($123,880). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does SAM'S FANS have?
IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $405,011 in grants to SAM'S FANS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SAM'S FANS?
COLUMBUS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $123,880 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SAM'S FANS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 15 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