Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
BOARDSOURCE
BOARDSOURCE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,836,872 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($5,000,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Boardsource does
Mission
To inspire and support nonprofit boards and executives to lead justly and with purpose. Boardsource envisions a future where the nonprofit community has the leadership to fulfill its purpose and create a world where all can thrive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Thought leadership: Boardsource's research and thought leadership highlight the importance of effective board leadership, addressing the challenges facing nonprofit leaders and identifying opportunities for greater sector impact. We focus on trends impacting nonprofit leadership performance and effectiveness, generating evidence-based recommendations for board practice. Boardsource's purpose driven board leadership (pdbl) model, introduced in 2021, enables boards and the organizations they serve to better achieve their organization's purpose and mission. In 2025, Boardsource continued to offer trainings and resources to help the field operationalize this framework and implemented a new theory of practice that enables the organization to create richer and more tailored resources to better meet governance needs across the sector. Boardsource is committed to listening and learning from our community of nonprofits and foundations to center the collective wisdom of the sector, bringing together our 35+ years of governance experience with the innovation of our sector's leaders to enhance our nonprofit ecosystem. Membership and other fee for service programming: over the course of 35+…
$3,979,082 spent$2,578,660 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,979,082.
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 $4.4M to $10M (+138%).
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 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
11% of BOARDSOURCE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Chief executive
Monika Kalra Varma
President & CEO
Board chair
Mark Shamley
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 20 funders, grant income fell $1.2M → $799k.
8 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 BOARDSOURCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
BOARDSOURCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
65% 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 BOARDSOURCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 40% · 2019 36% · 2020 18% · 2021 86% · 2022 27% · 2023 31% — 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
32% of BOARDSOURCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
BOARDSOURCE draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
BOARDSOURCE's revenue fell 49% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding BOARDSOURCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25 on record.
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$25
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 BOARDSOURCE
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 40 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BOARDSOURCE: 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 BOARDSOURCE?
- BOARDSOURCE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,836,872 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($5,000,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BOARDSOURCE have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $12,836,872 in grants to BOARDSOURCE, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BOARDSOURCE?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $5,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BOARDSOURCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Boardsource →
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 50 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