Virginia · Nonprofit
Special Operations Fund
Special Operations Fund (Virginia) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,428,679 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($822,850). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $5.4M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Special Operations Fund does
Mission
The Special Operations Fund (the "Fund") is a nonprofit organization that provides educational grants and support to the families of special mission unit warriors killed in action, killed in training, died in the line of duty, suicide, and Medal of Honor recipients. We also support the families of current and veteran special mission units' warriors with merit scholarships and other educational opportunities and programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Provided educational grants and support to the families of special mission unit warriors killed in action, killed in training, died in the line of duty, suicide, and Medal of Honor recipients. Also, support was provided to the families of current and veteran special mission units' warriors with merit scholarships and other educational opportunities and programs.
$1,915,163 spentof which $1,625,839 as grants94% of program spendingConducted a conference and other events to educate, and bring attention to, the public about current matters affecting special operations units and their families.
$123,258 spent6% of program spendingWarrior Health Initiative: A pilot executive health program at the Mayo Clinic for the medical evaluations of special operators who have previously transitioned, or are currently transitioning, out of military service. The program's objective is to facilitate a certain number of comprehensive medical evaluations. Further, the program will identify measurable outcomes such as the number of previously unidentified/unrecognized conditions per patient (diagnostic yield), the number of participants who engage in treatment relative to overall number of participants (treatment yield), and patient overall satisfaction with the program.
$4,152 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,042,573.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $13M to $15M (+14%).
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 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of Special Operations Fund’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Becki Chambers
Executive director
Board chair
D Michael Walden
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $140k → $661k.
21 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 Special Operations Fund’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
Special Operations Fund has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
58% 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 Special Operations Fund.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 16% · 2019 19% · 2020 43% · 2021 24% · 2022 25% · 2023 16% — 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
47% of Special Operations Fund's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
57% of Special Operations Fund'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 $2.3M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 18 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
Special Operations Fund runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Special Operations Fund
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 Special Operations Fund: 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 Special Operations Fund?
- Special Operations Fund (Virginia) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,428,679 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($822,850). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Special Operations Fund have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $5,428,679 in grants to Special Operations Fund, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Special Operations Fund?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $822,850 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Special Operations Fund find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 64 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