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California · Nonprofit

DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION

DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,830,963 to it, the largest being OTIS & BETTINA CHANDLER FOUNDATION ($3,037,500). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$8.8M
Funders on record
30
Grants received
$4.8M
Net assets
$91M
11/30 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 28%
01What it does

What Direct Relief Foundation does

Mission

The foundation is organized to operate solely and exclusively for the benefit of, to support, or to carry out the purposes of direct relief.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Direct Relief Foundation was formed as a supporting organization of direct relief and is organized to operate solely and exclusively to support, benefit, or carry out the purposes of direct relief. The foundation maintains custody of the strategic growth fund, which is a board designated endowment. The purpose of the strategic growth fund is to provide a reserve for current and future operations of direct relief. The strategic growth fund also provides funding to pay for all of direct relief's fundraising expenses and some management and general expenses. For the year ended june 30, 2025, the Direct Relief Foundation trustees approved for the strategic growth fund to provide funds to direct relief to cover all of its fundraising expenses as well as 100% of the compensation of direct relief's ceo.

    $4,963,620 spentof which $4,963,620 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,963,620.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($12M) Expenses 100 ($10.0M) Net assets 100 ($42M)2019 Revenue 187 ($22M) Expenses 115 ($11M) Net assets 125 ($52M)2020 Revenue 32 ($3.8M) Expenses 80 ($8.0M) Net assets 95 ($40M)2021 Revenue 203 ($24M) Expenses 38 ($3.8M) Net assets 162 ($67M)2022 Revenue 87 ($10M) Expenses 40 ($4.0M) Net assets 153 ($64M)2023 Revenue 92 ($11M) Expenses 34 ($3.4M) Net assets 173 ($72M)2024 Revenue 57 ($6.6M) Expenses 40 ($4.0M) Net assets 195 ($81M)2025 Revenue 76 ($8.8M) Expenses 53 ($5.3M) Net assets 218 ($91M)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (76)Expenses (53)Net assets (218)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 2020 to 2021, from $49M to $77M (+58%).

$46M
$54M
$49M
$77M
$73M
$77M
$89M
$100M
'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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

49% of DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,793 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.7M
’18
$10M
’19
−$4.2M
’20
$20M
’21
$6.1M
’22
$7.2M
’23
$2.6M
’24
$3.5M
’25
0.6
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

Amy Weaver

Chief executive officer (as of 5/25)

Board chair

Mark Linehan

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1125232320191820
Joined·+19+2+4+2+3+4+11
No longer listed·5445459
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $648k → $645k.

6 of 30 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 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

63%
largest funder
81%
top three
~2
effective funders

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; 37% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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.

NH
WA
IL
NY
MA
CT
CA
DE
NC
TX
FL

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. $369k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 RELIEF FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin40% · top quartile
Months of reserve0.6mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−4% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION

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.

Where the money goes

94% of spending goes to programs.

Program 94%Management 6%Fundraising 0%

Governance

16
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

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.

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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 RELIEF FOUNDATION?
DIRECT RELIEF FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,830,963 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 30 organizations giving $4,830,963 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 30 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