Illinois · Nonprofit
Current Innovation NFP
Current Innovation NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,382,402 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($565,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Current Innovation NFP does
Mission
Current's mission is to grow an inclusive blue economy, accelerate innovation, and solve persistent water challenges.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Current is a Chicago-based water innovation hub that launched in 2016 to help realize the region's potential as the world's water innovation leader. As a cross-sector convenor of local and global water sector stakeholders, Current builds networks, organizes events, helps develop pilot projects, and serves as a conduit for both technology and innovation by monitoring and independently evaluating new ideas and technology in water management, and working with utilities, research institutions, businesses, and innovators to test new solutions. Current works to grow the blue economy by generating research and data to inform strategic priorities, driving collaborations among researchers, entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, utilities, and community partners. We work to keep water in focus as an economic development priority and create strategies to support education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and investment. We host events and convenings to strengthen our networks.Current accelerates innovation by maintaining a sophisticated understanding of the state of the art in water technology, and identifying and supporting the development of promising technologies that solve…
$3,673,397 spentof which $1,905,628 as grants$391,400 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,673,397.
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 2023 to 2024, from $2.0M to $4.4M (+121%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 65% · 2018 50% · 2019 58% · 2020 37% · 2021 46% · 2022 45% · 2023 25% · 2024 67%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of Current Innovation NFP’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Alaina Harkness
CEO
Board chair
Venkat Atluri
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $80k → $433k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 Current Innovation NFP’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
Current Innovation NFP leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% 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
58% 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 Current Innovation NFP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 96% · 2021 74% · 2022 100% · 2023 35% — 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
40% of Current Innovation NFP's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 19% 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 Current Innovation NFP'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 $671k that is directly attributable, 60% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $712k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Current Innovation NFP has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Current Innovation NFP receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $43.1M on record.
- National Science Foundation$42.2M
- Department of Commerce$758k
- Department of Labor$225k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Current Innovation NFP
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Current Innovation NFP: 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 Current Innovation NFP?
- Current Innovation NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,382,402 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($565,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Current Innovation NFP have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,382,402 in grants to Current Innovation NFP, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Current Innovation NFP?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $565,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Current Innovation NFP find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 16 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