California · Nonprofit
SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS
SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS (California) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $688,939 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($375,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $23k
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $689k
- Net assets
- $-72347
What Special Ops Survivors does
Mission
Special Ops Survivors advances the mission "to embrace and empower surviving spouses of fallen special operations heroes to build healthy post-loss futures as they transition and rebuild their new lives." the foundation provides programs specifically designed to a) empower and educate, b) build and enhance resiliency, c) improve health and wellness, d)fund education and career advancement, and e) offer financial assistance for unexpected expenses.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Group and individual emotional support: Special Ops Survivors (sos) channels the healing power of bonds so that survivors do not weather their tragedies alone. Spouses have a shared experience as military families operating in special operations communities - lifestyles that can be markedly distinct from more traditional military units. As such, the bonds formed among them are both strong and lasting. Special Ops Survivors provides communities so that survivors may stay strong together. Resiliency retreats (group): annually, sos holds a national survivor's resiliency retreat. Though each year the retreat has a unique theme, the consistent outcome is to offer peer-based emotional assistance and to provide practical life-skills training for survivors to better manage their day-to-day lives. Sos covers costs, including local transportation, meals, lodging, speakers, workshops and extracurricular activities. "forget me not" outreaches (individual): sos maintains regular contact with our survivors through direct communications and quarterly remembrances or outreaches. These enduring outreaches are essential to our survivors' well-being because they demonstrate to our survivors that…
$102,815 spent100% of program spendingSpecial Ops Survivors empowers surviving spouses with (a) education and career advancement awards to reward them for their strength and resiliency as they pursue additional education to further their careers, and (b) limited amounts of financial assistance to assist them with unexpected expenses: education and career advancement awards: when their partners are killed in action or training, surviving spouses are thrust into the role of provider. They are often left to find new sources of income for the family. However, many can be ill-equipped to support themselves. Sos' education and career advancement program helps surviving spouses improve their quality of lives by helping them increase their education and improve their job skills. Emergency financial assistance: sos awards limited amounts of vital emergency financial aid to surviving spouses to assist them with unexpected expenses (e.g., home maintenance and repairs, weather damage, mortgage/rent assistance, purchase of home appliances, automobile repairs and maintenance, healthcare expenses not covered by insurance, emergency childcare, etc.)
Other program services or resources: sos understands that our survivor's lives changed significantly after the loss of their fallen hero and that they face new and demanding challenges. With appropriate funding, we offer additional programs that help surviving spouses alleviate stress, learn coping skills, and to stay healthy in their post-loss journey. We stand ready to provide information to available resources that address our survivor's particular needs and requirements. Join our circle - for more information about the services provided by Special Ops Survivors and ways to help support our mission, please visit our website at www.specialopssurvivors.org or email our team at contact@specialopssurvivors.org.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $102,815.
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 2024 to 2025, from $152k to $49k (−67%).
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.
98% of SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Rob Neitzel
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 5 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $98k → $95k.
6 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 OPS SURVIVORS’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
SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
90% 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 OPS SURVIVORS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 40% · 2019 65% · 2020 43% · 2021 54% · 2022 100% · 2023 53% — broadly stable.
“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
20% of SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
69% of SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS'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 $212k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside California, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $477k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 OPS SURVIVORS's revenue fell 88% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,787 human services nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS: 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 OPS SURVIVORS?
- SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS (California) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $688,939 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($375,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $688,939 in grants to SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS?
- THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $375,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPECIAL OPS SURVIVORS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Special Ops Survivors →
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 13 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