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California · Nonprofit

CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC

CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC (California) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,797,325 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,766,168). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$9.5M
Funders on record
68
Grants received
$4.8M
Net assets
$3.1M
45/68 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 7%
01What it does

What Catholic Answers Inc does

Mission

Catholic answers is an apostolate dedicated to serving christ by bringing the fullness of catholic truth to the world. We help good catholics become better catholics, bring former catholics home, and lead non-catholics into the fullness of the faith.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Products: distribution of hundreds of thousands of religious related products such as books, booklets, digital products, etc. To spread the catholic truth to the world.

    $2,388,328 spent$1,292,210 earned by the program
    34% of program spending
  2. Other programs include "catholic answers" magazine, conferences, pilrimages, seminars, and other miscellaneous projects.

    $1,945,607 spent$467,640 earned by the program
    28% of program spending
  3. Radio: catholic answers live is a program broadcast via radio, satellite radio, streaming internet and podcast. The show is dedicated to serving christ by bringing the fullness of catholic truth to the world.

    $1,819,077 spent
    26% of program spending
  4. Website: one of our largest outreaches is our website, catholic.com, which sees more than 2.8 million page views per month. The daily traffic on catholic.com continues to grow each year. Our site hosts thousands of articles, videos, and other resources available to each and every visitor at no cost, and every day it highlights fresh content written by catholic answers apologists and others.

    $865,906 spent
    12% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,018,918.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($7.5M) Expenses 100 ($7.5M) Net assets 100 ($1.7M)2018 Revenue 118 ($8.8M) Expenses 111 ($8.3M) Net assets 130 ($2.1M)2019 Revenue 110 ($8.3M) Expenses 112 ($8.4M) Net assets 123 ($2.0M)2020 Revenue 113 ($8.5M) Expenses 117 ($8.7M) Net assets 108 ($1.8M)2021 Revenue 120 ($9.0M) Expenses 106 ($7.9M) Net assets 171 ($2.8M)2022 Revenue 118 ($8.8M) Expenses 117 ($8.7M) Net assets 173 ($2.9M)2023 Revenue 114 ($8.5M) Expenses 121 ($9.1M) Net assets 142 ($2.3M)2024 Revenue 130 ($9.7M) Expenses 124 ($9.3M) Net assets 170 ($2.8M)2025 Revenue 127 ($9.5M) Expenses 123 ($9.2M) Net assets 186 ($3.1M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (127)Expenses (123)Net assets (186)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $2.7M to $3.3M (+20%).

$2.7M
$3.3M
$3.2M
$3.5M
$3.8M
$3.9M
$3.8M
$4.1M
$4.2M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$8k
’17
$493k
’18
−$117k
’19
−$236k
’20
$1.0M
’21
$70k
’22
−$560k
’23
$447k
’24
$274k
’25
3.8
months of
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

Tom Carney

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed131314141419181719
Joined·+2+4+3+0+6+1+0+3
No longer listed·23301211
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $224k → $593k.

21 of 68 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 68 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

CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

86% 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 CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC.

37%
largest funder
65%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 37% · 2019 33% · 2020 42% · 2021 35% · 2022 48% · 2023 39% — 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

52% of CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

85% of CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC'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 $702k that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from funders outside California, across 22 states.

IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
NV
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CA
NE
MO
VA
MD
DE
NC
OK
AL
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 6%Fundraising 18%

Governance

9
board members
89%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 27 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
NV
PA
NJ
RI
UT
CO
WV
VA
NM
KS
TN
NC
SC
HI
MS
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC: 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.

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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 CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC?
CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC (California) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,797,325 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,766,168). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC have?
IRS filings report 68 organizations giving $4,797,325 in grants to CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,766,168 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CATHOLIC ANSWERS INC 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 Catholic Answers →

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 68 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