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California · Nonprofit

Institute for Civilizational Studies

Institute for Civilizational Studies (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $369,829 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($150,612). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$62k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$370k
Net assets
$28k
5/8 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Institute for Civilizational Studies does

Mission

Institute for Civilizational Studies is a committed to promoting civilizational studies indigenous knowledge systems ethical innovation and transformative education

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Growing maintaining online encyclopedia which is used by ~100k people per month

    $24,012 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $24,012.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($77k) Expenses 100 ($73k) Net assets 100 ($65k)2021 Revenue 77 ($59k) Expenses 87 ($63k) Net assets 94 ($61k)2022 Revenue 98 ($76k) Expenses 122 ($89k) Net assets 74 ($48k)2023 Revenue 76 ($59k) Expenses 108 ($79k) Net assets 44 ($28k)2024 Revenue 81 ($63k) Expenses 113 ($83k) Net assets 12 ($8k)2025 Revenue 80 ($62k) Expenses 58 ($42k) Net assets 43 ($28k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (80)Expenses (58)Net assets (43)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 2023 to 2024, from $28k to $8k (−71%).

$77k
$61k
$48k
$28k
$8k
$28k
202020212022202320242025
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

88% of Institute for Civilizational Studies’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 18,808 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$4k
’20
−$4k
’21
−$13k
’22
−$20k
’23
−$20k
’24
$19k
’25
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $8k → $53k.

5 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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 Institute for Civilizational Studies’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

Institute for Civilizational Studies leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

88% 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 Institute for Civilizational Studies.

41%
largest funder
82%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 90% · 2019 64% · 2020 58% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 83% — 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

50% of Institute for Civilizational Studies's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

88% of Institute for Civilizational Studies'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 $45k that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from funders outside California, across 3 states.

NJ
CA
DE

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

’18
’19
’20
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $325k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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

Institute for Civilizational Studies runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin32% · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like Institute for Civilizational Studies

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

71%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

MA
CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Institute for Civilizational Studies: 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.

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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 Institute for Civilizational Studies?
Institute for Civilizational Studies (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $369,829 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($150,612). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Institute for Civilizational Studies have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $369,829 in grants to Institute for Civilizational Studies, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Institute for Civilizational Studies?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $150,612 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Institute for Civilizational Studies 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 Institute for Civilizational Studies →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 8 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