New York · Nonprofit
THE SYLVIA CENTER
THE SYLVIA CENTER (New York) receives grants from 84 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,815,324 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND ($925,848). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 84
- Grants received
- $4.8M
- Net assets
- $984k
What The Sylvia Center does
Mission
The Sylvia Center's mission is to educate young people and families through culinary programming to promote health and well-being.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Cooks for health:in partnership with community-based organizations and schools, The Sylvia Center's cooks for health program teaches young people and families, ages 2-24, cooking skills and nutrition literacy. During the six to twelve-week cooks for health plant-based curriculum, students learn how to distinguish between whole and processed foods, build a healthy plate, explore new foods, add flavor healthfully, understand seasonality, and access healthy foods in their community. The curriculum includes appropriate cooking skills, nutrition lessons, recipes, and activities for each age group. In family classes, participants receive a free meal kit for each session that highlights fresh ingredients and feeds a family of four to six.
$1,317,130 spent$338,190 earned by the program77% of program spendingTeen culinary apprenticeship:the teen culinary apprenticeship is a 16-week culinary program, using The Sylvia Center's core, plant-based curriculum, during which students develop foundational culinary skills and learn about the role of nutrition in preserving good health. The program culminates in an apprenticeship that provides professional development opportunities. Apprentices serve as chef instructors for youth culinary programming in their communities or participate in industry-related work-based learning experiences.
$250,080 spentof which $27,637 as grants$18,704 earned by the program15% of program spendingLearning garden at katchkie farm: the learning garden on katchkie farm, The Sylvia Center's upstate agricultural homebase, consists of garden beds, an outdoor cooking pavilion, and an activity/dining section. Students who visit the learning garden learn how fruits and vegetables are grown, have the opportunity to harvest and taste the plants growing there, and utilize the cooking station, led by a chef edcuator, to make a healthy dish using ingredients they picked themselves.
$146,343 spent$5,068 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,713,553.
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 $1.0M to $1.5M (+43%).
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: 2020 8% · 2022 10% · 2023 6% · 2024 6% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of THE SYLVIA CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Barbara A Glassman
Executive director
Board chair
Tara Gendelman
Chair
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 18 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $229k → $771k.
12 of 84 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 THE SYLVIA CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 84 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
THE SYLVIA CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
54% 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 THE SYLVIA CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 25% · 2019 27% · 2020 53% · 2021 19% · 2022 15% · 2023 19% — 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
48% of THE SYLVIA CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
62% of THE SYLVIA CENTER's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
THE SYLVIA CENTER's funding base is broadening — from 18 funders to 30 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like THE SYLVIA CENTER
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 THE SYLVIA CENTER: 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 THE SYLVIA CENTER?
- THE SYLVIA CENTER (New York) receives grants from 84 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,815,324 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND ($925,848). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE SYLVIA CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 84 organizations giving $4,815,324 in grants to THE SYLVIA CENTER, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE SYLVIA CENTER?
- JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND is the largest funder on record, with $925,848 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE SYLVIA CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Sylvia Center →
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 84 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