Skip to content

Virginia · Nonprofit

Center for a Free Cuba

Center for a Free Cuba (Virginia) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,254,031 to it, the largest being NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY ($808,031). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$456k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$1.3M
Net assets
$210k
4/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 78%
01What it does

What Center for a Free Cuba does

Mission

The Center for a Free Cuba is an independent, non-partisan instuition dedicated to promoting human rights and a transition to democracy and the rule of law on the island.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Help the courageous but beleaguered Cuban Civil Society by providing information to pro-democracy activities on the island by encouraging solidarity and support for them by Democratic Government, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations from around the world.

    $91,817 spent$107,214 earned by the program
    47% of program spending
  2. Provide humanitarian assistance to victims of Castros repression Including political prisoners and former political prisoners and their families.

    $102,655 spent$119,869 earned by the program
    53% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $194,472.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($454k) Expenses 100 ($519k) Net assets -110 ($-69796)2020 Revenue 118 ($537k) Expenses 78 ($404k) Net assets 100 ($64k)2021 Revenue 147 ($668k) Expenses 107 ($555k) Net assets 277 ($176k)2022 Revenue 49 ($222k) Expenses 64 ($333k) Net assets 103 ($65k)2023 Revenue 136 ($617k) Expenses 71 ($368k) Net assets 498 ($317k)2024 Revenue 51 ($232k) Expenses 99 ($516k) Net assets 51 ($32k)2025 Revenue 101 ($456k) Expenses 53 ($278k) Net assets 331 ($210k)
2019202020212022202320242025
Revenue (101)Expenses (53)Net assets (331)Peer revenue range

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 $334k to $53k (−84%).

$6k
$80k
$195k
$73k
$334k
$53k
$231k
2019202020212022202320242025
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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2019 56% · 2020 59% · 2021 62% · 2023 80% · 2024 43%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

99% of Center for a Free Cuba’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,945 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

−$66k
’19
$133k
’20
$113k
’21
−$111k
’22
$249k
’23
−$284k
’24
$178k
’25
9.9
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.

Chief executive

John Suarez

Executive Director

Board chair

Guillermo G Marmol

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023, and between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.

2019202020212022202320242025
Listed18141717171717
Joined·+5+4+0+4+2+1
No longer listed·910421
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $105k → $480k.

1 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 Center for a Free Cuba’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

Center for a Free Cuba leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% 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

69% 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 Center for a Free Cuba.

64%
largest funder
97%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 95% · 2020 73% · 2021 82% · 2022 93% · 2023 73% — 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

50% of Center for a Free Cuba's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

Center for a Free Cuba draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 7 states in all.

NY
NJ
VA
MD
NC
DC
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $57k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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

Against its field

Center for a Free Cuba runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,468 international nonprofits its size.

Operating margin39% · top quartile
Months of reserve9.9mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)0% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,468 international nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Center for a Free Cuba

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 Virginia

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

70% of spending goes to programs.

Program 70%Management 30%Fundraising 0%

Governance

17
board members
94%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

74%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

VA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Center for a Free Cuba: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Center for a Free Cuba?
Center for a Free Cuba (Virginia) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,254,031 to it, the largest being NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY ($808,031). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Center for a Free Cuba have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $1,254,031 in grants to Center for a Free Cuba, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Center for a Free Cuba?
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY is the largest funder on record, with $808,031 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Center for a Free Cuba find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Center for a Free Cuba →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 9 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