Tennessee · Nonprofit
VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC
VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,350 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($46,405). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $62k
- Net assets
- $405k
What Volunteer Firefighter Alliance Inc does
Mission
Assist local volunteer fire deparements across the nation with fundraising, community outreach, volunteer retention and recruitment and to educate the public about the benefits of local volunteer fire deparments.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Firefighter recruitment program: help volunteer fire departments recruit members through our national direct mail outreach program, and by providing customized marketing materials to individual departments. Through our recruitment program in 2024 we have mailed out over 2.8 million pieces of education on volunteer firefighter recruitment to residents across the united states.
$626,656 spent52% of program spendingFire prevention program: provide free fire prevention materials and education materials to schools, fire departments, senior centers, and any other at-risk groups (hearing impaired, disabled, etc) in 2024 the alliance provided 254,500 pieces of fire safety and prevention activity books & materials to over 353 different fire departments and civic organizations in 43 different states.
$136,681 spent11% of program spendingNational firefighter appreciation campaign: undertaking a national appreciation campaign to not only thank our volunteers but to raise awareness about the invaluable services they provide all of us. We have asked our supporters to send in thank you cards from all over the country. We then put them in bundles of 50 or more and send them to a fire department in their respective state. Through this campaign in 2024 we mailed out 138,000 personalized thank you cards to 2,760 different fire departments across the united states.
$263,275 spent22% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$187,244 spent15% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,213,856.
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 2019 to 2020, from $320k to $877k (+174%).
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 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (70% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Alan Bohms
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $6k → $6k.
1 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 74% 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 VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC’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
VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
74% 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 VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 91% · 2019 67% · 2020 93% · 2021 94% · 2022 86% · 2023 97% — 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
8% of VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 19% 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
74% of VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC'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 $16k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Tennessee, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $46k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC has grown faster than half of the 807 public safety & disaster nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 807 public safety & disaster nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC
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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
28% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 51 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC: 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 VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC?
- VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,350 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($46,405). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $62,350 in grants to VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC?
- PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND is the largest funder on record, with $46,405 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER ALLIANCE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 27 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