Washington · Nonprofit
DENSHO
DENSHO (Washington) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,655,028 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,014,500). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $6.7M
- Net assets
- $5.5M
What Densho does
Mission
Promote and share the history of the wwii japanese american incarceration to promote justice and equity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Collect and preserve 1,000+ in-depth, video-recorded oral history interviews with japanese americans incarcerated during wwii, along with over 100,000 historic photographs and documents. Collaborate with community organizations, educational institutions, and individuals to digitally preserve the authentic primary source materials related to the world war ii japanese american incarceration.
$639,735 spent$141,802 earned by the program47% of program spendingProvide a comprehensive educational resource to help all americans know the history and understand the lessons of the world war ii japanese american incarceration. This includes the creation and maintenance of the nationally acclaimed online Densho encyclopedia with approximately 1,500 articles, educational curricula used annually by millions, and programming for the general public with subject matter experts.
$667,965 spent$21,089 earned by the program49% of program spendingCreate and maintain a sophisticated digital repository of primary source materials related to the world war ii incarceration of japanese americans. The collection is entirely digital and can be accessed online for free. The materials in the digital repository are integrated with a detailed names database of the 125,000+ japanese americans and japanese nationals who were incarcerated during wwii along with a map-based module called sites of shame which exhibits the 90+ detention.
$64,930 spent$38,270 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,372,630.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.8M to $5.1M (+82%).
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 37% · 2018 40% · 2019 28% · 2020 18% · 2021 17% · 2022 14% · 2023 10% · 2024 22% · 2025 32%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of DENSHO’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
Naomi Kawamura
Executive director
Board chair
Ron Tanemura
Chairman/president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $148k → $932k.
17 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% 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 DENSHO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
DENSHO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
73% 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 DENSHO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 60% · 2019 36% · 2020 29% · 2021 34% · 2022 43% · 2023 28% — 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
36% of DENSHO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% 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
66% of DENSHO'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 $2.3M that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 16 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.4M 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.
Against its field
DENSHO holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding DENSHO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.7M on record.
- Department of the Interior$3.4M
- National Archives and Records Administration$175k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$163k
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 DENSHO
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% 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 7 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DENSHO: 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 DENSHO?
- DENSHO (Washington) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,655,028 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,014,500). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DENSHO have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $6,655,028 in grants to DENSHO, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DENSHO?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $2,014,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DENSHO find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 82 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