Skip to content

California · Nonprofit

COMMON FUTURE

COMMON FUTURE (California) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,583,282 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($5,100,500). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$5.8M
Funders on record
78
Grants received
$49M
Net assets
$17M
41/78 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Common Future does

Mission

Common Future is a network of pioneering leaders across the u.s. And canada who work deeply within their communities to create alternative approaches to business, philanthropy, and investing. We envision an economy that has transitioned from the extractive accumulation of wealth and centralization of power to one that redistributes wealth, democratizes power, and shifts economic control to marginalized communities.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Capital intermediation our work as an intermediary has three principal aims: redistribute capital to community leaders. Pilot new types of flexible financing that better serve their needs. Create a new asset class tailored to these communities that can scale and attract capital on its own.

    $3,286,971 spentof which $178,435 as grants$340,000 earned by the program
    47% of program spending
  2. Project incubation we incubate projects that have the potential to drastically transform capital distribution and wealth ownership. By forging collaboratives with like-minded organizations, we build upon our shared networks to bring new models to life.

    $2,212,646 spentof which $298,565 as grants
    32% of program spending
  3. Leadership and field building by bringing together fellows, funders, and other key players in the economy, Common Future has built a unique network that is poised to learn together; forge new collaborations; provide real financial opportunities through grantmaking and capital products; and elevate this work to mainstream actors in philanthropy, investing, and policy to influence economic systems.

    $1,478,808 spent
    21% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,978,425.

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 ($4.0M) Expenses 100 ($2.6M) Net assets 100 ($2.5M)2020 Revenue 313 ($12M) Expenses 273 ($7.2M) Net assets 311 ($7.7M)2021 Revenue 384 ($15M) Expenses 204 ($5.4M) Net assets 709 ($18M)2022 Revenue 330 ($13M) Expenses 364 ($9.6M) Net assets 977 ($24M)2023 Revenue 134 ($5.3M) Expenses 392 ($10M) Net assets 774 ($19M)2024 Revenue 146 ($5.8M) Expenses 304 ($8.0M) Net assets 684 ($17M)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (146)Expenses (304)Net assets (684)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 2021 to 2022, from $18M to $29M (+59%).

$2.9M
$8.5M
$18M
$29M
$20M
$17M
201920202021202220232024
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

80% of COMMON FUTURE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,434 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.3M
’19
$5.2M
’20
$9.9M
’21
$3.5M
’22
−$5.0M
’23
−$2.2M
’24
14
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.

201920202021202220232024
Listed161618141511
Joined·+2+4+4+5+4
No longer listed·22848
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $370k → $5.7M.

21 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 COMMON FUTURE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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

COMMON FUTURE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left

54% 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 COMMON FUTURE.

10%
largest funder
28%
top three
~19
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 56% · 2019 37% · 2020 36% · 2021 36% · 2022 18% · 2023 22% — 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

34% of COMMON FUTURE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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

COMMON FUTURE draws 73% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 17 states in all.

ME
WA
MN
MI
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
CO
MO
MD
DE
DC
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. $21M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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

Against its field

COMMON FUTURE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−39% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve13.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like COMMON FUTURE

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

68% of spending goes to programs.

Program 68%Management 26%Fundraising 6%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

80%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 4 states

WA
PA
CA
CO

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • Cf Impact Capital Manager LLC · disregarded
  • Cf Cbl Fund LLC · disregarded
  • Community Credit Lab · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMMON FUTURE: 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 COMMON FUTURE?
COMMON FUTURE (California) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,583,282 to it, the largest being TIDES FOUNDATION ($5,100,500). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does COMMON FUTURE have?
IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $48,583,282 in grants to COMMON FUTURE, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of COMMON FUTURE?
TIDES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,100,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like COMMON FUTURE 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 2019–2024), and the filings of 78 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