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
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
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 program34% of program spendingOther programs include "catholic answers" magazine, conferences, pilrimages, seminars, and other miscellaneous projects.
$1,945,607 spent$467,640 earned by the program28% of program spendingRadio: 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 spent26% of program spendingWebsite: 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 spent12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,018,918.
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.
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%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Tom Carney
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
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.
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.
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.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
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.
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
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.
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