California · Nonprofit
Food Empowerment Project
Food Empowerment Project (California) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,767,670 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($706,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $532k
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $2.8M
- Net assets
- $959k
What Food Empowerment Project does
Mission
Food Empowerment Project seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
VeganismWe began 2024 with our "Why Compassion?" project, a series of videos in which vegans of various ages and backgrounds share why compassion for animals is their principal motivation for going and staying vegan. We conducted our second-annual Youth ScholarshipContest, for creative youths aged 11 to 24 who have a passion for compassion to win $300 to $500 by using their writing or illustrating talent to advocate for ethical veganism and help create a kinder world. Fox 56 News did a segment on it.F. E. P. organized a free webinar, "Embodiment of Injustice: The Dairy Industry, which provided an eye-opening look at injustices that are embedded in the dairy industry. The event featured guest speakersincluding a dairy workerand videos, through which attendees gained a deeper understanding of their food choices and how they can stand up against the dairy industry. A post-event survey showed that people loved the webinar. One attendee wrote: An incredibly eye-opening and compassionate seminar, providing different but important perspectives about the dairy industry and its cultural impact on vulnerable communities. Other responses included: Motivating and validating, Revolutionary,…
$303,079 spent63% of program spendingFarm Worker RightsWe worked on various pieces of legislation regarding housing and education for farm workers and their children.We conducted our annual school supply drive and donated more than 200 backpacks to the children of farm workers living along the Central Coast of California. These farm workers primarily pick strawberries. We also connected with Jos Moreno Hernndez, a former farm worker who is now an engineer and a retired NASA astronaut, who kindly sent in an encouraging quote to be included in each backpack
$91,879 spent19% of program spendingAccess to Healthy FoodWe continued to expose the Safeway/Albertsons policy that impacts the health of communities.
$55,964 spent12% of program spendingChocolate We continued to update our Chocolate List, to which 100 companies were added in 2024, and the app was downloaded 18,000 times.
$27,110 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $478,032.
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 2020 to 2021, from $820k to $1.4M (+69%).
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: 2017 0% · 2020 6% · 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
101% of Food Empowerment Project’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. 3 of the last 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $62k → $537k.
10 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 Food Empowerment Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
Food Empowerment Project leans on a few funders — its largest provides 26% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
93% 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 Food Empowerment Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 58% · 2019 32% · 2020 52% · 2021 42% · 2022 33% · 2023 42% — 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 Food Empowerment Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
86% of Food Empowerment Project'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 $385k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Food Empowerment Project holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters 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 Food Empowerment Project
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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Food Empowerment Project: 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 Food Empowerment Project?
- Food Empowerment Project (California) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,767,670 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($706,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Food Empowerment Project have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $2,767,670 in grants to Food Empowerment Project, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Food Empowerment Project?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $706,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Food Empowerment Project 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 Food Empowerment Project →
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 31 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