California · Nonprofit
DIRECT RELIEF
DIRECT RELIEF (California) receives grants from 1379 organizations whose IRS filings report $354,268,150 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($54,690,980). 619 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
DIRECT RELIEF runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 39 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 39 international nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Fine and Greenwald Foundationshared funders
- Irani Family Foundationportfolio match
- World Bank Community Connections Fundshared funders
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.
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.
100% of DIRECT RELIEF’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (97% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 295 funders to 416 funders, grant income rose $16M → $38M.
149 of 1379 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $47M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Direct Relief Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money DIRECT RELIEF raised.
From the IRS filings of DIRECT RELIEF’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1379 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
DIRECT RELIEF has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
62% 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 DIRECT RELIEF.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 13% · 2018 17% · 2019 24% · 2020 8% · 2021 58% · 2022 14% · 2023 10% — 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
35% of DIRECT RELIEF'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
55% of DIRECT RELIEF'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 $160M that is directly attributable, 82% of it comes from funders outside California, across 47 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $194M arriving through sponsors registered in 38 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 1379 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Fine and Greenwald Foundationshared fundersFL · backs 63 organizations that share your funders
- Irani Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- World Bank Community Connections Fundshared fundersDC · backs 50 organizations that share your funders
- Ann & Gordon Getty Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 64 organizations that share your funders
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 65 organizations that share your funders
- Chc Creating Healthier Communitiesshared fundersVA · backs 56 organizations that share your funders
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 46 organizations that share your funders
- Horizons Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 69 organizations that share your funders
- Community Foundation of Northern Nevadashared fundersNV · backs 65 organizations that share your funders
- Crankstart Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 61 organizations that share your funders
- Lisa & Douglas Goldman Fundshared fundersCA · backs 61 organizations that share your funders
- Freedom Together Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 69 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like DIRECT RELIEF
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
99% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
48%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Part of a family of 6 related entities
- Dr Property 1 LLC · disregarded
- Direct Relief Puerto Rico · disregarded
- Direct Relief Foundation · exempt
- Direct Relief International South Africa · exempt
- Direct Relief Mexico · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DIRECT RELIEF: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds DIRECT RELIEF?
- DIRECT RELIEF (California) receives grants from 1379 organizations whose IRS filings report $354,268,150 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($54,690,980). 619 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DIRECT RELIEF have?
- IRS filings report 1379 organizations giving $354,268,150 in grants to DIRECT RELIEF, 619 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIRECT RELIEF?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $54,690,980 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIRECT RELIEF 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 FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 1379funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing