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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
18/49 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 50%
01What it does

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

  1. 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 grants
    69% of program spending
  2. Fifty 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 spent
    31% of program spending
  3. Available upon request

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $494,219.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($799k) Expenses 100 ($675k) Net assets 100 ($617k)2018 Revenue 109 ($872k) Expenses 130 ($876k) Net assets 99 ($613k)2019 Revenue 113 ($905k) Expenses 128 ($865k) Net assets 106 ($653k)2020 Revenue 115 ($917k) Expenses 125 ($843k) Net assets 118 ($727k)2021 Revenue 85 ($676k) Expenses 131 ($884k) Net assets 84 ($519k)2022 Revenue 133 ($1.1M) Expenses 153 ($1.0M) Net assets 88 ($542k)2023 Revenue 85 ($680k) Expenses 149 ($1.0M) Net assets 35 ($216k)2024 Revenue 87 ($696k) Expenses 128 ($865k) Net assets 8 ($46k)2025 Revenue 134 ($1.1M) Expenses 99 ($665k) Net assets 73 ($453k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (134)Expenses (99)Net assets (73)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 2024 to 2025, from $104k to $479k (+362%).

$843k
$852k
$903k
$957k
$764k
$639k
$266k
$104k
$479k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

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).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,680 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$124k
’17
−$4k
’18
$40k
’19
$74k
’20
−$208k
’21
$28k
’22
−$327k
’23
−$169k
’24
$406k
’25
0.9
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.

Board chair

Sally Gilchrist

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed111010111412111213
Joined·+4+1+3+3+2+2+1+1
No longer listed·51204300
03Who funds it

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.

23%
largest funder
50%
top three
~9
effective funders

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.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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.

ME
MN
IL
WI
NY
IN
OH
NJ
CT
CA
MO
MD
DE
NC
DC
TX
FL

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Minnesota out of state home

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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

H2O FOR LIFE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 798 international nonprofits its size.

Operating margin38% · top quartile
Months of reserve0.9mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 7%Fundraising 18%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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

MN

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.

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 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