Ohio · Nonprofit
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES (Ohio) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,424,657 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($1,083,195). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.3M
- Funders on record
- 81
- Grants received
- $6.4M
- Net assets
- $-9668635
What Vocational Guidance Services does
Mission
Creating pathways for individuals with disabilities to engage in the community, achieve greater independence, and attain employment.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, vgs and its affiliates served 772 individuals with disabilities across all programming. Services included 77 individuals earning a paycheck and receiving job readiness curriculum at one of eight community-based worksites; 60 program participants placed in integrated community jobs; and 52 young adults who completed a six-week summer work experience. In total, 504 individuals received vocational rehabilitation programming. Across vgs, vsi, and vgs inc., individuals with disabilities, who are often overlooked as potential employees despite their talents and work ethic, collectively earned more than $9m in wages. Vgs' top referral sources include the ohio department of developmental disabilities, opportunities for ohioans with disabilities, and the cuyahoga county board of developmental disabilities. Our work is possible because of our deep partnerships across both the private and public sectors. Dozens of local businesses employ the individuals we serve, rely on vgs to provide qualified staff, and provide varied opportunities for individuals to earn a paycheck. The organization also benefits from the generosity and the dedication of more than 150 committed volunteers, and…
$5,159,676 spent$6,117,194 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,159,676.
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 $20M to $23M (+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 3% · 2018 3% · 2019 4% · 2020 12% · 2021 9% · 2022 2% · 2023 5% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (16% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 8 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
Susan Barragate
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $386k → $531k.
14 of 81 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 81 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
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% 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
45% 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 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 28% · 2019 33% · 2020 37% · 2021 17% · 2022 17% · 2023 18% — 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
70% of VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 80% 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
80% of VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,551 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,551 employment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4k on record.
- General Services Administration$4k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Vgs Inc · exempt
- Vocational Services Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES: 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 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES?
- VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES (Ohio) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,424,657 to it, the largest being THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION ($1,083,195). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES have?
- IRS filings report 81 organizations giving $6,424,657 in grants to VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES, 65 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES?
- THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,083,195 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SERVICES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Vocational Guidance Services →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 81 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