North Carolina · Nonprofit
Shining Hope Farms
Shining Hope Farms (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,699,047 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,120,075). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $1.7M
- Net assets
- $765k
What Shining Hope Farms does
Mission
Shining Hope Farms is a Nonprofit organization whose mission is to enable children and adults to reach their full potential through the use of equine-assisted activities and therapy services.Shining Hope Farms operates three locations in the Western Piedmont region of North Carolina, offering equine-assisted services and enriching clinical therapies to benefit individuals of all ages with disabilities, Veterans, and those in need of mental health counseling. We have three farms (Charlotte, Mt. Holly, and Conover, NC) serving 14 surrounding counties as a strategic reach to impact the Greater Charlotte and Hickory Areas. We would love the opportunity for you to tour one of our farms and learn more about the impact we make. Please contact our Development Director Patrice Gibson at patricegibson@shininghopefarms.org to schedule a tour today.Shining Hope Farms has received national recognition due to the positive measurableoutcomes of its patients as well as its transparency of accounting p
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Therapy Services Program: Our THERAPY SERVICES PROGRAM offers physical, occupational, speech, and mental health clinical therapy services, in a traditional clinic setting, as well as in an enriching nature-based setting. We also offer equine movement and interaction where appropriate. In 2023, our Therapy Services program served 212 patients over the course of 4,971 visits between our three locations. See Schedule O for more.
$874,344 spent$459,525 earned by the program79% of program spendingAdaptive Riding Program: Our ADAPTIVE RIDING PROGRAM provides goal-oriented, recreational group or private lessons and is conducted by a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International Certified Riding instructor. Clients typically have a physical or cognitive disability. In 2023, this program served 78 clients over the course of 1,210 lessons. See Schedule O for more.
$193,459 spent$72,271 earned by the program17% of program spendingSaddles & Salutes Program: Our SADDLES & SALUTES VETERANS PROGRAM serves Veterans as part of their community support system for Veteran wellness. Veterans can choose to participate in group or private adaptive riding lessons or group or private mental health counseling. In 2023 we served 38 Veterans through adaptive riding over 286 sessions and 9 Veterans in mental health counseling over 35 group and private sessions. See schedule O for more.
$45,274 spent$3,887 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,113,077.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $755k to $1.1M (+41%).
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: 2019 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of Shining Hope Farms’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Kari Saylor
Chair/Treasurer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $22k → $222k.
11 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 Shining Hope Farms’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
Shining Hope Farms leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 Shining Hope Farms.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 94% · 2019 75% · 2020 83% · 2021 64% · 2022 51% · 2023 47% — 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
67% of Shining Hope Farms's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
81% of Shining Hope Farms'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 $325k that is directly attributable, 60% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Shining Hope Farms has grown faster than half of the 11,263 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,263 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Shining Hope Farms
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Shining Hope Farms: 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 Shining Hope Farms?
- Shining Hope Farms (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,699,047 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,120,075). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Shining Hope Farms have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,699,047 in grants to Shining Hope Farms, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Shining Hope Farms?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,120,075 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Shining Hope Farms find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Shining Hope Farms →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 31 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