California · Nonprofit
ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC
ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,870,000 to it, the largest being Mercatus Center Inc ($1,000,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $437k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What Essential Impact Inc does
Mission
Essential impact creates breakthrough solutions to tackle malnutrition and transform food systems in sub-saharan africa. We leverage advances in fermentation to create affordable, accessible, and climate-resilient proteins that can be integrated into food products to prevent and treat malnutrition.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, essential impact launched a 7,000-square-foot bio manufacturing plant in nairobi, one of east africa's leading bioscience labs, and produced the first bio-manufactured protein for human consumption in sub-saharan africa. The team completed 19 production runs, secured operating licenses and permits, and worked with the kenya bureau of standards toward food-safety certification. Scientific operations scaled from 5l to 500l bio reactors, completing over 30 fermentation experiments and deploying new in-house tools for cost and process optimization. Essential also began joint r&d with a kenyan food manufacturer to develop a protein-fortified porridge and advanced discussions with four additional partners. Policy partnerships and advocacy helped include fermented proteins in ethiopia's national bioeconomy strategy and launched a collaboration with the world bank and stanford university on a report about fermentation and food security.
$783,294 spentof which $511,048 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $783,294.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2023 to 2024, from $2.7M to $2.1M (−22%).
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 ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 2 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
Grant Gordon
CEO & co-founder
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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
ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% 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 ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC.
“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.
Where its funders are
ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC draws 52% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 2 states in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $933k 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.
Against its field
ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC is better cushioned than half of the 2,974 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,974 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like ESSENTIAL IMPACT 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Essential Impact Limited · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ESSENTIAL IMPACT 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 ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC?
- ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,870,000 to it, the largest being Mercatus Center Inc ($1,000,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $2,870,000 in grants to ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC.
- Who is the largest funder of ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC?
- Mercatus Center Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ESSENTIAL IMPACT INC 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 Essential Impact →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2023–2024), and the filings of 7 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