North Carolina · Nonprofit
CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION
CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION (North Carolina) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,632,858 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($1,500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $659k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $800k
What Carolina Forward Foundation does
Mission
To conduct in depth polling of the citizens of North Carolina and to publish and disseminate educational articles on major public policy issues in North Carolina.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
In 2025, the Carolina Forward Foundation expanded and broadened its mission to inform the voters of North Carolina. The Foundation reached several million North Carolina voters through its digital and offline channels with educational content about the state legislature. It helped launch Influence NC, a Gen-Z civic engagement initiative that has trained 25 elected leaders, partnered with six colleges, and generated over 6 million impressions just in its first quarter. The Foundation published "North Carolina's Next Chapter," a major research project on accommodating projected population growth, and distributed copies of this research to members and staff in the state legislature. The Foundation was again an advertising sponsor of The Hometown Holler, the fastest-growing independent media brand in North Carolina. It advocated for housing reform in the state legislature and at the county level, and helped describe and promote the importance of forward-thinking policy in making housing more affordable to more North Carolinians. It also supported The Pink Vote, a nonpartisan voter registration effort engaging Black voters in Forsyth County.
$370,811 spentof which $25,000 as grants100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $370,811.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 $953k to $631k (−34%).
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.
100% of CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (84% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 3 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
Blair Reeves
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $25k → $1.0M.
5 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION’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
CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 92% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 99% — 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.
Where its funders are
97% of CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION'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 $43k that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,934 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,934 public benefit nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION: 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 CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION?
- CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION (North Carolina) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,632,858 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($1,500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $1,632,858 in grants to CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $1,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CAROLINA FORWARD FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 2023–2025), and the filings of 8 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