California · Nonprofit
Center for Food Safety
Center for Food Safety (California) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,676,413 to it, the largest being CARROLL PETRIE FOUNDATION ($1,750,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 80
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Center for Food Safety does
Mission
The Center for Food Safety (cfs) is a non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy membership organization established for the purpose of challenging harmful food production technologies and promoting sustainable alternatives. Cfs combines multiple tools of strategies in pursuing its goals, including litigation and legal agriculture and food safety constituencies, as well as public education, grassroots organizing and media outreach.
As stated on its FY2019 Form 990.
Programs
Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops (also called Agricultural Biotechnology): CFS continued its work challenging USDA and other government agencies for not adequately reviewing the environmental and economic impacts of GE Crops. This work included submiting policy comments to these agencies to ensure they are are complying with environmental and other laws, and educating the public and poliymakers about the impacts of GE Crops.
$1,553,498 spent66% of program spendingAnimal Factories:CFSs impact litigation, legislative proposals, and policy initiatives aim to end the toxic pollution and inhumane treatment of animals in animal factories, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). At the same time, our litigation has and will continue to protect our oceans by halting the development of industrial aquaculture in U.S waters.
$521,093 spent22% of program spendingPollinators & Species Protection: Through impact litigation, policy initiaties, aand public campaigns, CFS works to stop the use of toxic chemicals in industrial agriculture that endanger our pollinators, other sensitive and endangered species,and that destroy their habitat.
$167,074 spent7% of program spendingOrganic: CFS works to maintain and enhance strong organic standards that live up to the quality and integrity that consumers expect from organic products including foods, clothing personal care products such as cosmetics, and pet foods through legal actions, policy comments, and public education. Climate: CFS work involves a systematic approach to limiting agricultural practices that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions
$106,684 spent5% of program spendingand advancing regenerative and agro-ecological practices that enhance climate resilience and sequester atmospheric carbon.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,348,349.
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 2018 to 2019, from $1.1M to $3.3M (+209%).
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.
53% of Center for Food Safety’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 26 funders to 34 funders, grant income rose $906k → $1.5M.
22 of 80 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 Food Safety’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 80 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
Center for Food Safety has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
32% 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 Food Safety.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 27% · 2019 18% · 2020 18% · 2021 27% · 2022 34% · 2023 22% — growing more concentrated.
“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
33% of Center for Food Safety's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
51% of Center for Food Safety's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
Center for Food Safety runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,131 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,131 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Center for Food Safety
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 30 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Center for Food Safety Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Center for Food Safety: 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 Center for Food Safety?
- Center for Food Safety (California) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,676,413 to it, the largest being CARROLL PETRIE FOUNDATION ($1,750,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Center for Food Safety have?
- IRS filings report 80 organizations giving $11,676,413 in grants to Center for Food Safety, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Center for Food Safety?
- CARROLL PETRIE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Center for Food Safety 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 80 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