California · Nonprofit
DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION
DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,819,963 to it, the largest being OTIS & BETTINA CHANDLER FOUNDATION ($3,037,500). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,983 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,983 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, 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.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared funders
- Hp Foundationportfolio match
- The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundationportfolio match
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.
49% of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $648k → $645k.
5 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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: $62M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Direct Relief). These are real filings, and they are not money DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION’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 RELIEF FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 51% · 2019 86% · 2020 60% · 2021 94% · 2022 79% · 2023 78% — 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
26% of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
77% of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $363k 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.
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 29 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 118 organizations that share your funders
- Hp Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Weil Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Philip Devon Family Fdn Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Graves Technologies Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Stewart Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Black Dog Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Polevoy Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Hildebrandt Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Mlg Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Dechomai Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
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 FOUNDATION
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Direct Relief · exempt
- Direct Relief International South Africa · exempt
- Direct Relief Mexico · exempt
- Direct Relief Ggmbh · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION: 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 FOUNDATION?
- DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,819,963 to it, the largest being OTIS & BETTINA CHANDLER FOUNDATION ($3,037,500). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $4,819,963 in grants to DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION?
- OTIS & BETTINA CHANDLER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,037,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION 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 29funders 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