Where Does $100 to No Kid Hungry Go?

No Kid Hungry is actually a national campaign started in 2010 by Share Our Strength (SOS), a tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) 3 whose focus is on ending childhood hunger in the United States although they do limited international work.  Based in Washington, DC, SOS does this by raising funds and awarding grants (20% of revenue in 2020; 12% in 2019) and advocating for this disadvantaged group.

SOS has 17 voting members (directors) of the governing body; 11 (65%) of whom are male; 6 (35%) of whom are female.

So, if you donated $100 in 2020, how much went to feeding the kids? It depends on how you define “feeding the kids.”  Some people would narrowly define the phrase as actually feeding the children whereas some people would more broadly define the phrase by including all efforts going into feeding hungry children.  The short answer is this:

• 54% of revenue was spent; 46% of revenue was added to the general fund (savings)
• 21% of revenue was given in grants to other organizations who feed hungry children. These organizations have to deduct their costs (i.e. staff, office, etc) from these grants
• 33% of revenue was used for organization compensation, fees (primarily fundraisers), office, travel, conferences, advertising, and promotion

So, every $100 donation was spent as follows:

$100:  Revenue

-$ 33:  Organization expenses

-$ 21:  Grants to Organizations feeding children

-$ 54:  Total Expenses

 $ 46:  Unspent Revenue:  To General Fund

As illustrated above, about one-half of your donation was used to pay organization expenses and provide grants to organizations feeding hungry kids while the other half was put into savings.

The more detailed answer follows:

In 2020, total revenue was $160 million, which was a significant increase from the the $75 million raised in 2019 and the $66 million in 2018, due to increased contributions, gifts, and grants.  This appears to be due to significant fundraising efforts by the organization.

Expenses totaled $86 million (54% of revenue), allocating the remaining revenue – $74 million – to general assets (savings) which increased net assets from $41 million at the beginning of the year to $115 million at year-end.  Expenses can be categorized as follows:

• $33 million (21% of revenue):  Grants
• $28 million (18% of revenue):  Compensation
• $10 million (6% of revenue):  Fees for services (primarily fundraising and “other”)
• $ 6 million (4% of revenue):  Office-Related Expenses
• $ 5 million (3% of revenue):  Travel and Conferences
• $ 4 million (2% of revenue):  Advertising and Promotion

Using the above information, every $100 in revenue was spent as follows:

$100:  Revenue

-$ 18:  Compensation

-$  6:  Fees for Services

-$  4:  Office-Related Expenses

-$  3:  Travel and Conferences

-$  2:  Advertising and Promotion

-$ 33:  Subtotal: Compensation, Fees, Office, Travel, Conferences, Advertising, Promotion

$ 67:  Revenue Remaining

-$ 21:  Grants

$ 46:  Unspent Revenue:  To General Fund

In summary, $33 out of every $100 was spent on administrative and organization expenses; $21 out of every $100 was spent on grants primarily to non-profits (who have to deduct their own organization expenses) leaving $46 out of every $100 unspent and allocated to the general fund. Clearly, the organization is focused on increasing their general fund balance since they saved more than they spent on grants to feed hungry kids,.

The largest expense was grants.  $33 million in grants were made in the US ($120,000 was made to foreign entities).  1,030 grants greater than $5,000 were made to other non-profit 501 (c) 3’s or government entities. 5 grants greater than $5,000 were made to other organizations.  The 10 largest grants were made to:

• $1 million:  Windward Fund, of Washington, DC for childhood hunger programs
• $607,364:  Food Bank for New York City, of New York, NY for childhood hunger programs
• $437,420:  Atlanta Community Food Bank, of Atlanta, GA for childhood hunger programs
• $427,421:  United Way of King County, of Seattle, WA for No Kid Hungry State Partner Grant
• $362,335:  Montana Dept of Public Health, of Helena, WA for summer meals program support
• $285,597:  Second Harvest Heartland, of St Paul, MN for childhood hunger program
• $283,330:  Baylor University, of Waco, TX for No Kid Hungry State Partner Grant
• $275,000:  Greater Chicago Food Depository, of Chicago, IL for childhood hunger programs
• $230,000:  Feeding Texas, of Austin, TX for childhood hunger programs
• $215,000:  Project Bread, of East Boston, MA for childhood hunger programs

The second largest expense was for compensation.  334 employees received $28 million in compensation, which equates to an average compensation of $84,000.

$10 million was spent on fees for services, primarily fundraising (note:  the organization also had in-house staff dedicated to fundraising which is not included in fees for services).  The organization relied on all types of fundraising:  e-mail, mail, internet, phone, and in-person solicitation, special fundraising events, and the solicitation of grants – both government and non-government.

The 10 most highly compensated fundraisers raised $19 million, were compensated $3 million (16%), netting $16 million (84%).  Bypassing these telemarketers and fundraisers would mean the organization net significantly more revenue.

The largest fundraiser is the NYCWFF (New York City Wine and Food Festival) held in New York City raised $6.7 million.  After deducting the contribution portion of $3.3 million, gross income was $3.4 million. The organization spent $6.1 million (rental facility costs, food and beverage, entertainment and other direct costs) leaving a loss of $2.7 million.

At the beginning of the year, the organization had $41 million in net fund assets.  Because they spent only about half of the money raised, they allocated $74 million to the general fund increasing net fund assets to $115 million at year-end. The question that has to be asked is why were more funds put into savings ($74 million) than into grants ($33 million) to feed hungry kids?

To read the IRS Form 990 (2019 for the year ending June 30, 2020), click here.