Minnesota · Nonprofit
H2O FOR LIFE
H2O FOR LIFE (Minnesota) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,616,483 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($600,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $453k
What H2o for Life does
Mission
H2o for Life educates, engages and inspires youth, k-12, to learn about the global water crisis while taking local and global action. Schools partner with a school in a developing country and provide funds to support implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene in service-learning opportunities focused on global water crisis.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
H2o for Life schools and sixty-eight program partners pledged 149,057.30 between july 1st, 2024, and july 1st, 2025. Thus far, they have raised 149,057.30 towards wash projects at schools worldwide, supported by our implementing partners. Our implementing partners match our funds, making the total global impact 372,277.36 towards essential wash projects.
$338,715 spentof which $65,335 as grants69% of program spendingFifty nine schools participated this year, along with eleven other community partners. Staff delivered fifty-nine direct presentations to our schools, nine monthly seminars to our high school fellows, and presented at five educational conferences. We supported thirty eight high school fellows as they led projects at their school and explored careers in water advocacy. Our mini-grant program allocated 4,450 to nine schools, and they raised 11,397 to go towards wash projects globally. New stem and climate science lessons were created to further engage our schools in wash education.
$155,504 spent31% of program spendingAvailable upon request
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $494,219.
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 2024 to 2025, from $104k to $479k (+362%).
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 12% · 2018 18% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 22% · 2022 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
102% of H2O FOR LIFE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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.
Board chair
Sally Gilchrist
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $244k → $218k.
11 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 H2O FOR LIFE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
H2O FOR LIFE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
49% 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 H2O FOR LIFE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 28% · 2019 54% · 2020 25% · 2021 45% · 2022 29% · 2023 34% — 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
20% of H2O FOR LIFE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% 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
H2O FOR LIFE draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M 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.
Against its field
H2O FOR LIFE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 798 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like H2O FOR LIFE
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for H2O FOR LIFE: 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 H2O FOR LIFE?
- H2O FOR LIFE (Minnesota) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,616,483 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($600,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does H2O FOR LIFE have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $2,616,483 in grants to H2O FOR LIFE, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of H2O FOR LIFE?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like H2O FOR LIFE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 49 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