California · Nonprofit
ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL
ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,433,702 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($2,050,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Accountability Counsel does
Mission
Accountability Counsel amplifies the voices of communities around the world to protect their rights and environment. As experts in strategies to demand justice, we work alongside those whose rights, livelihoods, and environment are under threat by the worlds wealthiest, most powerful investors. We specialize in channels that amplify communities voices to be heard at the highest levels of power shifting it back to those who know the impact of an investment on their land and lives best.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Communities Achievements: Community cases drive direct impact. Our advocacy experts work alongside communities to halt harmful investments, redesign them to respect rights, and negotiate remedy when they cause harm. CONTINUED IN SCHEDULE O.
$1,271,694 spent44% of program spendingPolicy Advocacy Achievements: Policy advocacy changes systems at scale. We leverage lessons from our casework and research to strengthen the systems, safeguards, and practices at investing institutions so that they are responsive to communities, respect their rights, and protect the environment.Continued in Schedule O
$911,398 spent32% of program spendingResearch Achievements:Research exposes patterns of harmful investment. We conduct data analysis and qualitative research to contextualize our casework and illuminate systemic barriers to accountability equipping us and others to better understand the system we are working to change.CONTINUED IN SCHEDULE O.
$683,717 spent24% of program spendingCommunities Achievements: Continuation from page 2, Form 990Our casework this year related to projects in Lesotho, Indonesia, Haiti, Uganda, Mongolia, and Ukraine, as well as dozens of unique engagements with communities around the world seeking information and resources to use accountability offices to demand justice. In the past year, we provided advice to communities negatively impacted by mining in Zimbabwe, Colombia, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Serbia; agriculture projects in Uganda; hydropower in Nepal, Tajikistan, and Panama; infrastructure projects in Brazil, Peru, and India; and more.Policy Advocacy: Continuation from page 2, Form 990This year, our advocacy was essential to defend and advance accountability for several financial flows that risk harming the environment and human rights. Alongside key coalitions of partners, we pushed for stronger accountability policy and practice in multilateral development finance through ongoing policy reviews at development banks in Africa, Asia, Europe, and globally.Research Achievements: Continuation from page 2, Form 990This year, our team published findings from a years-long investigation into the outcomes of accountability…
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,866,809.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.3M to $4.4M (+93%).
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: 2021 8% · 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Kimberly Keller
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $234k → $2.8M.
12 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 42% · 2019 58% · 2020 22% · 2021 28% · 2022 34% · 2023 23% — 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
46% of ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL's funding base is broadening — from 7 funders to 17 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
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 ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL: 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 ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL?
- ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,433,702 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($2,050,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $12,433,702 in grants to ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL?
- THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,050,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Accountability Counsel →
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 36 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