Skip to content

California · Nonprofit

FORMIDABLE JOY

FORMIDABLE JOY (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $637,799 to it, the largest being Harbor Road Foundation ($140,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$134k
Funders on record
20
Grants received
$638k
Net assets
$153k
12/20 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 76%
01What it does

What Formidable Joy does

Mission

Provide access to clean water in Malawi, Africa. Accomplished by drilling boreholes, repairing pumps, installing solar systems for drinking and irrigation, provide training, menstrual hygiene education, distribution of essential supplies and disaster relief.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. Freedomland Mzuzu- Installed a 10,000 liter solar water irrigation system. Benefiting 460 community members.

    $29,757 spent
    71% of program spending
  2. St. Andrews School- Drilled new borehole for school in need. Benefited 1736 students and surrounding community.

    $6,200 spent
    15% of program spending
  3. Paulos Khangolos Village- Drilled new borehole for community in need. Benefited 1150 people.

    $6,200 spent
    15% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $42,157.

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 ($171k) Expenses 100 ($126k) Net assets 100 ($67k)2019 Revenue 106 ($182k) Expenses 122 ($154k) Net assets 141 ($95k)2020 Revenue 148 ($253k) Expenses 91 ($115k) Net assets 360 ($242k)2021 Revenue 127 ($218k) Expenses 219 ($277k) Net assets 265 ($178k)2022 Revenue 123 ($211k) Expenses 174 ($220k) Net assets 226 ($152k)2023 Revenue 166 ($285k) Expenses 194 ($246k) Net assets 286 ($192k)2024 Revenue 79 ($134k) Expenses 143 ($181k) Net assets 228 ($153k)
2018201920202021202220232024
Revenue (79)Expenses (143)Net assets (228)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 2019 to 2020, from $95k to $242k (+155%).

$67k
$95k
$242k
$178k
$152k
$192k
$153k
2018201920202021202220232024
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of FORMIDABLE JOY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 7,828 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$45k
’18
$27k
’19
$138k
’20
−$60k
’21
−$10k
’22
$39k
’23
−$46k
’24
8.1
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

Cindee Rood

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

2020202120222023
Listed5667
Joined·+1+0+2
No longer listed·001
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $31k → $122k.

10 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 FORMIDABLE JOY’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

FORMIDABLE JOY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

50% 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 FORMIDABLE JOY.

22%
largest funder
43%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 52% · 2019 31% · 2020 28% · 2021 30% · 2022 29% · 2023 41% — 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

33% of FORMIDABLE JOY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

FORMIDABLE JOY draws 83% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 7 states in all.

WA
WI
NY
NV
CA
MO
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $288k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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

FORMIDABLE JOY's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 7 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−35% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−4% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,117 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like FORMIDABLE JOY

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.

Public support

80%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORMIDABLE JOY: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 FORMIDABLE JOY?
FORMIDABLE JOY (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $637,799 to it, the largest being Harbor Road Foundation ($140,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FORMIDABLE JOY have?
IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $637,799 in grants to FORMIDABLE JOY, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FORMIDABLE JOY?
Harbor Road Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $140,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FORMIDABLE JOY 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 Formidable Joy →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 20 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