Missouri · Nonprofit
UNLEASHING POTENTIAL
UNLEASHING POTENTIAL (Missouri) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,021,268 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER ST LOUIS INC ($4,895,844). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What Unleashing Potential does
Mission
The mission of Unleashing Potential is to close the opportunity gap for children and youth by building on their strengths. We create educational and empowering experiences through early childhood education, after school programs, youth (continued on schedule o)development, and enrichment camps.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
School age services:up school age services - with a strong commitment to personal growth and academic success, up school age services provides before-school and after-school programs for elementary/middle-aged students in under resourced communities in the greater st. Louis area. The program provides homework assistance, cultural awareness, and s.t.e.a.m. Activities (science, technology, engineering, art expression, and math), including geospatial intelligence concepts. Conscious discipline, a research-based behavior modification curriculum, is used to develop social emotional life skills for children. Continued on schedule o. 2023 outcomes: - 9 sites in the city and county- 454 children served- 100% of children gained or maintained independent living /essential life skills -86% managed, identified and appropriately expressed emotions and behaviors. Summer enrichment camps - up enrichment camps offer fun and enriching activities designed to provide an experiential approach to joyful summer learning for youth k-8 grades. Strategically located at partner sites in st. Louis city and county, the 8-week camps give children ages 5 to 15 years old opportunities for day camp filled with…
$2,561,455 spent$162,449 earned by the program70% of program spendingEarly childhood education: the licensed and accredited early childhood education center at caroline mission provides children, aged 6 weeks to 5 years high quality early childhood education and care. The services are offered on a sliding scale and state child care subsidies are available for families in need. This two generational approach includes significant parent engagement interactions to support the development of the child. Continued on schedule o. 2023 outcomes: - 64 children served- 100% of children were ready for kindergarten. - 82% of children met or exceeded age-appropriate developmental milestones.
$1,122,373 spent$352,341 earned by the program30% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,683,828.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2020 to 2021, from $2.0M to $2.7M (+39%).
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: 2018 42% · 2019 42% · 2020 51% · 2021 56% · 2022 52% · 2023 62% · 2024 52%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of UNLEASHING POTENTIAL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% 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.
Chief executive
Darlene Sowell
President and CEO
Board chair
Thomas Stringer
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 14 funders, grant income fell $1.6M → $714k.
8 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 UNLEASHING POTENTIAL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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
UNLEASHING POTENTIAL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 UNLEASHING POTENTIAL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 50% · 2019 52% · 2020 50% · 2021 40% · 2022 47% · 2023 65% — 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
39% of UNLEASHING POTENTIAL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
98% of UNLEASHING POTENTIAL's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $906k 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
UNLEASHING POTENTIAL receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $10M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,263 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like UNLEASHING POTENTIAL
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 Missouri
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
100%
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 UNLEASHING POTENTIAL: 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 UNLEASHING POTENTIAL?
- UNLEASHING POTENTIAL (Missouri) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,021,268 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER ST LOUIS INC ($4,895,844). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNLEASHING POTENTIAL have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $10,021,268 in grants to UNLEASHING POTENTIAL, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNLEASHING POTENTIAL?
- UNITED WAY OF GREATER ST LOUIS INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,895,844 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNLEASHING POTENTIAL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Unleashing Potential →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 32 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