Skip to content

California · Nonprofit

Direct Connections To Africa

Direct Connections To Africa (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,349 to it, the largest being The John C Griswold Family Foundation ($179,836). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$46k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$279k
Net assets
$147k
6/8 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 33%
01What it does

What Direct Connections To Africa does

Mission

Help villages in africa with educational supplies, scholarships to enable children to continue elementary & secondary education, job development, medical needs and general community needs, by directly connecting individuals from the african village with individuals from our community.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Providing educational and medical support as well as assistance with other community needs.

    $44,921 spentof which $40,374 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $44,921.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($188k) Expenses 100 ($145k) Net assets 100 ($96k)2018 Revenue 103 ($193k) Expenses 139 ($202k) Net assets 91 ($87k)2019 Revenue 101 ($191k) Expenses 141 ($205k) Net assets 76 ($73k)2020 Revenue 90 ($169k) Expenses 102 ($148k) Net assets 97 ($94k)2021 Revenue 120 ($226k) Expenses 133 ($193k) Net assets 132 ($127k)2022 Revenue 90 ($169k) Expenses 84 ($123k) Net assets 180 ($174k)2023 Revenue 51 ($97k) Expenses 76 ($111k) Net assets 165 ($159k)2024 Revenue 28 ($53k) Expenses 46 ($67k) Net assets 152 ($146k)2025 Revenue 25 ($46k) Expenses 31 ($45k) Net assets 153 ($147k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (25)Expenses (31)Net assets (153)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 $127k to $174k (+37%).

$96k
$87k
$73k
$94k
$127k
$174k
$159k
$146k
$147k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of Direct Connections To Africa’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (65% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 26,798 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$43k
’17
−$9k
’18
−$14k
’19
$21k
’20
$33k
’21
$47k
’22
−$14k
’23
−$13k
’24
$1k
’25
7.9
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.

Chief executive

Mary Ellen Carter

President & CEO

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $9k → $22k.

3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 Direct Connections To Africa’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

Direct Connections To Africa leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

64%
largest funder
86%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 88% · 2019 88% · 2020 72% · 2021 68% · 2022 50% · 2023 49% — 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

67% of Direct Connections To Africa's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

Direct Connections To Africa draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 2 states in all.

CA
DE

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. $53k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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

Direct Connections To Africa's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin3% · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−16% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like Direct Connections To Africa

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.

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

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Direct Connections To Africa: 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 Direct Connections To Africa?
Direct Connections To Africa (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,349 to it, the largest being The John C Griswold Family Foundation ($179,836). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Direct Connections To Africa have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $279,349 in grants to Direct Connections To Africa, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Direct Connections To Africa?
The John C Griswold Family Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $179,836 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Direct Connections To Africa 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.

Play a game about who funds Direct Connections To Africa →

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 8 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