California · Nonprofit
CANAL ALLIANCE
CANAL ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 163 organizations whose IRS filings report $52,612,923 to it, the largest being LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION ($11,792,258). 106 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 163
- Grants received
- $53M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Canal Alliance does
Mission
Canal Alliance has been the leading service provider and community advocate for marin's extremely low-income immigrant community for 39 years. Each year, the organization collaborates with over 60 agencies and engages hundreds of volunteers to serve more than 4,000 individuals and families. Canal Alliance exists to break the generational cycle of poverty for latino immigrants and their families by lifting barriers to their success. Because breaking the generational cycle of poverty is extremely complex, our program model offers comprehensive and multifaceted approaches that simultaneously improve individual and family stability and well-being, education, and employment. Our primary strategy is to help clients access education and immigration legal services, both of which have been shown to improve outcomes related to employment and income, and combined, have the greatest impact on improving economic outcomes for immigrants.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The social services team plays a critical role in helping families access safety net services to address any urgent needs, access our weekly food pantry, and get referrals to our licensed clinicians for behavioral health services. Since the start of the pandemic, this team has been on the front lines of our response helping clients access financial and rental assistance, unemployment insurance, small business loans, and other resources.
$3,745,686 spentof which $1,107,815 as grants$5,128,069 earned by the program31% of program spendingOur immigration legal services department is the only provider of comprehensive and affordable immigration legal services in marin county. Ils helps clients seeking information about their legal rights and options by providing legal consultations, referrals, and representation and conducting legal outreach and education, offering a key pathway out of poverty by helping clients gain legal work authorization and naturalization/citizenship.
$2,359,947 spent19% of program spendingYouth education - after school educational assistance services for students through high school and college placement assistance.
$1,802,723 spentof which $168,968 as grants15% of program spendingPace - program to disseminate community and local policy information to canal residents.
$1,680,096 spent14% of program spendingWorkforce development provides training that prepares and supports clients to gain quality jobs that offer career-track employment opportunities. The program ensures client success by providing wraparound case management and two years of follow-up services. The program has a high one-year job retention rate of 87% and income increases that average 41%. We also offer small business classes in spanish to help latinos launch and manage their own small businesses.
$1,233,212 spent10% of program spendingEsl - educational assistance for adult clients.
$783,369 spent6% of program spendingCanal housing provided housing for 12 families in three apartment buildings. We have renovated all three buildings, upgrading and repairing each apartment and installing solar panels on the roof of each solar power has substantially lowered each tenants monthly pg&e bill.
$509,616 spent4% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,114,649.
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 2023 to 2024, from $23M to $34M (+50%).
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 11% · 2018 12% · 2019 15% · 2020 11% · 2022 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of CANAL ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (84% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Omar Carrera
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 32 funders to 79 funders, grant income rose $2.3M → $8.8M.
27 of 163 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 CANAL ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 163 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
CANAL ALLIANCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
81% 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 CANAL ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 38% · 2019 46% · 2020 23% · 2021 21% · 2022 47% · 2023 28% — 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
49% of CANAL ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
CANAL ALLIANCE draws 52% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 27 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $23M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
CANAL ALLIANCE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 127 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 127 religion nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CANAL ALLIANCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $500k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$500k
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 CANAL ALLIANCE
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
72% 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 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Canal Alliance Property Group LLC · disregarded
- 711 Grand Qalicb · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CANAL ALLIANCE: 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 CANAL ALLIANCE?
- CANAL ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 163 organizations whose IRS filings report $52,612,923 to it, the largest being LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION ($11,792,258). 106 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CANAL ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 163 organizations giving $52,612,923 in grants to CANAL ALLIANCE, 106 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CANAL ALLIANCE?
- LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $11,792,258 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CANAL ALLIANCE 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.
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 163 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