North Carolina · Nonprofit
STEPUP MINISTRY
STEPUP MINISTRY (North Carolina) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,206,906 to it, the largest being MEAD FAMILY FOUNDATION ($915,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $4.2M
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What Stepup Ministry does
Mission
Stepup inspires adults and children at economic risk to take responsibility for every aspect of their lives through comprehensive programs and meaningful relationships. To do this, stepup partners with adults and children in the shared goal of stable lives through employment and life skills training. Practicing compassionate accountability, we seek to break down the barriers that keep individuals and their families unemployed, thus benefiting the whole community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Employment: the jobs team empowers, encourages and equips individuals to obtain and maintain employment through extensive job training workshops, case management and compassionate accountability. We uniquely invest in the needs of those facing long-term unemployment while also investing in the needs of, and enlisting the support of, area businesses. Through an innovative and partnered approach, we enable our business community to help formerly unemployed individuals thrive and participants to work toward becoming productive, healthy and actively employed members of our community. Between july 1, 2024 and june 30, 2025, Stepup Ministry trained 317 individuals and helped to place 70 individuals in jobs and worked with 58employers.
$289,110 spent23% of program spendingLife skills - adults: once employed, stepup participant adults and their children can attend a yearlong incentivized program that equips the whole family with the life skills necessary to live stable lives. Our adults may lack community support, but are responsible as primary wage earners and parents. Life skill families learn skills such as budgeting, goal-setting, credit restoration, managing emotions and relational development. The goal is long term stability in all aspects of the family's life. Between july 1, 2024 and june 30, 2025, 92 adults attended the life skills program.
$459,206 spent37% of program spendingLife skills - children: our children's program provides age-appropriate life skills training tailored to their specific needs to grow and develop into the next stages of their life. Our baby and little steps equip children ages 0-5 with the essential building blocks and foundational tools to take life's next steps. Middle ground provides children aged 5-15 with a safe and nurturing environment to grow, learn, and explore their individuality. For young adults, ages 16-21, the real-world program prepares young adults to the transition into adulthood by teaching the skills needed to make responsible choices, maintain positive attitudes, value education, strengthen communication skills, and establish meaningful, long-lasting relationships. Between july 1, 2024 and june 30, 2025, 120 children attended the life skills program, and 131 young adults participated in real world outreach events.
$500,536 spent40% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,248,852.
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 $1.7M to $2.0M (+19%).
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: 2017 5% · 2018 10% · 2019 2% · 2020 7% · 2021 18% · 2022 9% · 2023 5% · 2024 5% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of STEPUP MINISTRY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Colisha Stanford
Chief executive officer
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 21 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $239k → $632k.
12 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.2M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Way of the Greater Triangle Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money STEPUP MINISTRY raised.
From the IRS filings of STEPUP MINISTRY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
STEPUP MINISTRY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
30% 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 STEPUP MINISTRY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 31% · 2019 27% · 2020 16% · 2021 14% · 2022 14% · 2023 40% — growing more concentrated.
“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
65% of STEPUP MINISTRY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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 STEPUP MINISTRY's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $847k arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
STEPUP MINISTRY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like STEPUP MINISTRY
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
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STEPUP MINISTRY: 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 STEPUP MINISTRY?
- STEPUP MINISTRY (North Carolina) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,206,906 to it, the largest being MEAD FAMILY FOUNDATION ($915,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does STEPUP MINISTRY have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $4,206,906 in grants to STEPUP MINISTRY, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STEPUP MINISTRY?
- MEAD FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $915,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STEPUP MINISTRY 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 Stepup Ministry →
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 79 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