Washington · Nonprofit
SPARK NORTHWEST
SPARK NORTHWEST (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,390,094 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($805,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Spark Northwest does
Mission
Founded in 2001, Spark Northwest accelerates the just transition to clean energy in the Pacific Northwest. Spark Northwest uses two primary strategies: (1) on-the-ground project consulting, focusing on communities with limited financial resources and (2) systemic advocacy to create opportunities and overcome obstacles to equitable deployment of clean energy.Project Design and Management: Spark Northwest lends technical expertise to people and groups to pursue renewable energy and energy efficiency options to power their homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods. This technical support includes education, outreach, planning, project design, resource evaluation, economic modeling, permitting assistance and contractor selection. Projects are designed to prioritize community involvement and accountability. Systemic Advocacy: Spark Northwest advocates for strong policies to reduce the barriers to clean energy implementation and encourage development at the local level. Spark Northwest supports p
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, Spark Northwest partnered with nearly 50 Tribal, community-based organizations, rural and municipal entities to support their clean energy goals and projects. The grant-writing assistance provided by Spark Northwest resulted in close to $ 5.25 million being awarded. Almost 450 attendees learned about energy basics or clean energy topics like solar, battery storage, energy efficiency and heat pumps. Spark Northwests projects saved low-income families more than $6 million in clean energy installation costs. On the policy front, Spark Northwest met with more than 30 state legislators to lay the groundwork for energy policy improvements like the Safe and Cool Washington campaign and neighborhood scale weatherization programs.
$1,095,807 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,095,807.
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 $898k to $1.2M (+38%).
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: 2023 6% · 2024 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
30% of SPARK NORTHWEST’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Vineet Parkhe
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $70k → $317k.
9 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 SPARK NORTHWEST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
SPARK NORTHWEST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
25% 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 SPARK NORTHWEST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 46% · 2019 45% · 2020 33% · 2021 25% · 2022 25% · 2023 32% — 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
60% of SPARK NORTHWEST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
SPARK NORTHWEST draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $304k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
SPARK NORTHWEST is better cushioned than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SPARK NORTHWEST receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $170k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$170k
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 SPARK NORTHWEST
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 SPARK NORTHWEST: 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 SPARK NORTHWEST?
- SPARK NORTHWEST (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,390,094 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($805,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SPARK NORTHWEST have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $3,390,094 in grants to SPARK NORTHWEST, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPARK NORTHWEST?
- THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $805,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPARK NORTHWEST find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Spark Northwest →
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 38 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