Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
SPARK THE JOURNEY
SPARK THE JOURNEY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,094,823 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,094,150). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Spark the Journey does
Mission
Spark the Journey is a non-profit organization that provides mentorship and a community of support for young adults from washington d.c.'s low-income neighborhoods to chart their own paths to achieving college and career success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Spark the Journey believes that a community of support changes the outcomes of the young adults we serve, so we create an environment where they can engage with the community and learn the importance of building and maintaining relationships. This skill alone helps them gain an understanding of networks as tools for success and exposes them to new and exciting possibilities in their educational and professional lives. We match our program participants with a dedicated mentor. Each mentee and mentor pair are supported by a Spark the Journey team member who serves as a resource and support system to help ensure they are cultivating meaningful relationships and developing the skills they need to thrive in school or in their career. For Spark the Journey program participants seeking a college education, they are provided with wrap-around services and programs such as free sat classes and subject-specific tutoring, individualized college advising, application assistance, case management, scholarships, fafsa application assistance, resume revision, professional networking, internship and externship experiences, career exploration days, and direct financial support. For Spark the Journey…
$2,507,215 spentof which $31,880 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,507,215.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $4.1M to $2.9M (−29%).
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 33% · 2022 14% · 2023 22% · 2024 16% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of SPARK THE JOURNEY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% 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
Mary Bush
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $345k → $1.2M.
13 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 THE JOURNEY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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 THE JOURNEY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
55% 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 THE JOURNEY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 41% · 2019 50% · 2020 25% · 2021 21% · 2022 29% · 2023 20% — 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
46% of SPARK THE JOURNEY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
54% of SPARK THE JOURNEY'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 $4.7M that is directly attributable, 71% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 14 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 THE JOURNEY's revenue fell 20% between 2019 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SPARK THE JOURNEY
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, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SPARK THE JOURNEY: 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 THE JOURNEY?
- SPARK THE JOURNEY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,094,823 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,094,150). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SPARK THE JOURNEY have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $10,094,823 in grants to SPARK THE JOURNEY, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPARK THE JOURNEY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,094,150 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPARK THE JOURNEY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 the Journey →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 55 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