Ohio · Nonprofit
DESIGN OUTREACH INC
DESIGN OUTREACH INC (Ohio) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,621,578 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($604,107). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Design Outreach Inc does
Mission
Design Outreach is a Christian humanitarian organization that seeks to alleviate global poverty by creating life-sustaining technology.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Design Outreach (DO) is a Christian nonprofit organization that seeks to alleviate global poverty by creating innovative, life-sustaining solutions that help transform marginalized and low-income communities physically, economically, and spiritually. As a team of engineers with diverse experience and areas of expertise, DO focuses on innovative products that improve the lives of the most marginalized and vulnerable people living in developing countries. As an organization dedicated to alleviating global poverty, DO directed the majority of its funding in 2024 to Field Programs and the further establishment of its field offices. With field offices in Malawi, Zambia and the UK, DO is expanding globally to support its growing operations and to enhance its partnerships, manufacturing, and fundraising opportunities. The Malawi and Zambia field offices allow DO to be more available to meet with missionaries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community leaders, and government officials to work toward policy change, Gospel outreach, and appropriate technology implementation that will have generational impact in the communities where the organization works. The Malawi Field Office, in…
$895,523 spentof which $128,874 as grants32% of program spendingAnother major focus for DO in 2024 was the development and deployment of the organization's water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) solutions, including LifePumpTM and MaxLifeTM. DO's flagship technology, LifePump, has been installed in 12 countries, bringing safe and reliable water to over 400,000 people globally. The first permanent LifePump was installed in 2013 and has been operating since then with zero days of downtime. LifePump is designed to operate deeper in the ground and last longer than traditional hand pumps, providing safe and reliable water access in communities where other technologies have been unable to meet their needs. While LifePump remains a core focus, DO is also in the process of developing a hand pump upgrade kit that will help extend the life of commonly used hand pumps including the Afridev and India Mark II and III. Known as the MaxLifeTM Program, these kits are on their way to revolutionizing the way the world accesses water. The MaxLife centralizer, the first upgrade component ready for widespread rollout, addresses the root cause of up to 75% of Afridev pump failures. Because of its critical role in improving pump performance, DO has prioritized its…
$1,144,861 spent$182,587 earned by the program40% of program spendingAnother major program area is DO's Engineering Solutions efforts. Behind the scenes, DO engineers continue to design and develop breakthrough innovations that provide the resources communities need to thrive. As DO works toward its goals of delivering innovative solutions to end extreme poverty, the engineering team continues to develop new and innovative ways to give those living in poverty hope, dignity, and the possibility of a better life. LifePumpTM. In 2024, 73 new LifePumps were installed, bringing the total to 492 across 12 countries, providing clean water to 375,400 people. LifePump continues to be a game changer for remote communities where the water is at significant depths, making it difficult for other pump technologies to reliably access water. LifePumpLinkTM. DO's remote monitoring technology helps ensure that LifePump communities never experience a day without water. In August 2024, LifePumps equipped with LifePumpLink surpassed 1,000,000 hours of usage tracked since monitoring began in 2018, and they were being used at a rate of 500,000 hours per year. LifeTapTM. LifeTap, DO's reliable and robust self-closing valve, is providing water from tap stands in 7…
$794,663 spent28% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,835,047.
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 $1.1M to $1.4M (+28%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 5% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of DESIGN OUTREACH INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (39% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Greg Bixler
Co-founder and CEO
Board chair
Dean Jessup
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $22k → $394k.
17 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% 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 DESIGN OUTREACH INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
DESIGN OUTREACH INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
80% 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 DESIGN OUTREACH INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 67% · 2019 62% · 2020 38% · 2021 36% · 2022 26% · 2023 50% — 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 DESIGN OUTREACH INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
75% of DESIGN OUTREACH INC'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 $645k that is directly attributable, 60% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
DESIGN OUTREACH INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,978 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,978 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like DESIGN OUTREACH INC
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 DESIGN OUTREACH INC: 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 DESIGN OUTREACH INC?
- DESIGN OUTREACH INC (Ohio) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,621,578 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($604,107). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DESIGN OUTREACH INC have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $2,621,578 in grants to DESIGN OUTREACH INC, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DESIGN OUTREACH INC?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $604,107 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DESIGN OUTREACH INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Design Outreach →
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 37 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