Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
EVIDENCE ACTION
EVIDENCE ACTION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 128 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,080,126 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($181,187,298). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $36M
- Funders on record
- 128
- Grants received
- $279M
- Net assets
- $189M
What Evidence Action does
Mission
Evidence Action aims to be a world leader in scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty by building a world where hundreds of millions of poor people have better opportunities and their lives are measurably improved. (see sch. O)
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Safe water: Evidence Action's safe water program utilizes proven, innovative, and low-cost approaches to provide sustained safe water access at source to more than 10 million people in rural africa, preventing childhood illness and deaths. Our dispensers for safe water help rural communities install chlorine dispensers to allow users to add exactly the right dose of diluted chlorine to their water buckets, while in-line chlorination automatically treats communal piped water systems. The safe water program has recently expanded to india.
$17,175,826 spentof which $7,139,710 as grants$413,201 earned by the program46% of program spendingNutrition: the nutrition program leads the work for Evidence Action's deworm the world and equal vitamin access programs.deworm the world initiative is an incredibly high impact program, helping to deliver over 2 billion treatments to children for intestinal worms since 2014. Deworm the world initiative provides technical assistance to governments to implement high quality, cost effective, and sustainable programming. Regular deworming results in improved education, health, and long-term well-being for treated children.in 2019 Evidence Action launched a technical assistance program to support the delivery of iron and folic acid (ifa) supplementation for children and adolescents 6 months - 19 years of age in india. Tthe program is being implemented in india and malawi with a robust external evaluation design to measure changes in coverage.
$16,051,639 spentof which $5,344,968 as grants43% of program spendingMaternal neonatal and child health: the syphilis free start program is a technical assistance program providing comprehensive support to governments to scale hiv/syphilis dual testing and strengthen syphilis treatment provision to prevent newborn death and disability, with focus in five core areas: (1) strengthening policy, program management, and coordination, (2) enhancing supply chain management, (3) strengthening data collection and monitoring, (4) supporting healthcare provider training and supervision, and (5) identifying and securing sustainable funding.
$3,360,496 spentof which $648,867 as grants9% of program spendingNew program development: Evidence Action's accelerator drives new program development, selecting high-potential interventions with massive opportunity for evidence-based, cost effective impact. The accelerator tests and refines delivery models with the goal of rapidly scaling interventions with levels of impact similar to our existing programs. Promising new programs are advanced through a rigorous, 6 stage process - from desk research to testing at scale.
$1,114,886 spentof which $5,788 as grants3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $37,702,847.
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.
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 $86M to $179M (+110%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 2% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of EVIDENCE ACTION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Kanika Bahl
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Shikhar Ghosh
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 42 funders, grant income fell $46M → $23M.
26 of 128 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 79% 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 EVIDENCE ACTION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 128 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
EVIDENCE ACTION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
95% 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 EVIDENCE ACTION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 82% · 2019 68% · 2020 36% · 2021 66% · 2022 88% · 2023 39% — 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
36% of EVIDENCE ACTION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
79% of EVIDENCE ACTION'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 $59M that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 29 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $220M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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
EVIDENCE ACTION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 363 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like EVIDENCE ACTION
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- Eaii LLC · disregarded
- Eai 3 LLC · disregarded
- Evidence Action Inc · exempt
- Evidence Action Development Initiative Ltdgte · exempt
- Evidence Action Limited · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EVIDENCE ACTION: 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 EVIDENCE ACTION?
- EVIDENCE ACTION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 128 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,080,126 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($181,187,298). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EVIDENCE ACTION have?
- IRS filings report 128 organizations giving $279,080,126 in grants to EVIDENCE ACTION, 70 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EVIDENCE ACTION?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $181,187,298 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EVIDENCE ACTION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Evidence Action →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 128 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing