Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Kizuna Across Cultures
Kizuna Across Cultures (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $483,853 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES - JAPAN FOUNDATION ($264,610). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $252k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $484k
- Net assets
- $223k
What Kizuna Across Cultures does
Mission
To inspire youth in Japan and the US to look beyond their communities embrace diversity and become active global citizens by fostering international friendship through exchange of culture and collaborative learning via an educational exchange website.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Kizuna Across Cultures facilitated the six month bilingual and virtual exchange program Global Classmates for high school students across Japan and the U.S. from September 2024 to February 2025. Since 2011 Global Classmates has connected over 20,600 students from the U.S. and Japan. In the programs 13th year we connected 2,100 students from 79 high schools in Japan and the U.S.. We successfully delivered another year of high-quality collaborative online international learning experience as reflected in the exit survey with 97% of the students and 99% of the teachers reporting satisfaction with the program. Building on last years curriculum upgrade this year we continued to emphasize not just improving language skills and cultural understanding but also on fostering intercultural competence-the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people from different backgrounds build meaningful relationships and collaborate across cultures. This year many school pairs conducted live video exchanges more than once during the program. These real-time conversations significantly deepened students sense of connection with their peers which in turn sparked greater enthusiasm for…
$86,901 spent68% of program spendingThe Global Classmates Summit is a summer program facilitated by Kizuna Across Cultures KAC that brings together Japanese and American high school students who hold the potential to influence and lead in diverse communities in the future. Through a wide variety of activities the students deepen their understanding of one another and develop friendships while fostering their skills to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Japan and the U.S. as well as the broader international community. In its eighth year Kizuna Across Cultures selected sixteen outstanding students eight from the U.S. and eight from Japanfrom a pool of 2,190 students who participated in the 2023-24 Global Classmates virtual program. To reflect the increasingly diverse areas of cooperation between Japan and the U.S. we aimed to form a group of participants that are rich in diversity in terms of attributes strengths and fields of interest. Since the Summits launch in 2017 until the third year it was held as an in-person event in Washington DC; however due to the global pandemic it has been a virtual program since 2020. For this years Summit students met for three to four hours a day over the course of…
$30,796 spent24% of program spendingIn 2021 KAC launched the Global Classmate Community to provide ongoing support to participants who graduated from the Global Classmate program. This community aims to support young people who wish to enrich their academic career and personal lives by incorporating international perspectives and opportunities. This year we held three online webinars. Two of the webinars were co-hosted with the Embassy of Japan in the United States focusing on career opportunities related to Japan and studying abroad in Japan for Americans learning Japanese. Each webinar attracted over 300 participants highlighting a strong interest in the Japanese language and culture. In the future we plan to provide more information on practical steps to support career development.
$9,657 spent8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $127,354.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 $123k to $223k (+81%).
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: 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Kizuna Across Cultures’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 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.
Chief executive
Ayako Smethurst
Executive Director and Co-Founder
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $3k → $65k.
1 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 Kizuna Across Cultures’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
Kizuna Across Cultures leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 47% · 2019 71% · 2020 86% · 2021 48% · 2022 83% · 2023 39% — 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 Kizuna Across Cultures's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
87% of Kizuna Across Cultures's grant income comes from Washington, D.C. funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Kizuna Across Cultures runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,468 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,468 international nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Kizuna Across Cultures receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $340k on record.
- Department of State$340k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Kizuna Across Cultures
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Kizuna Across Cultures: 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 Kizuna Across Cultures?
- Kizuna Across Cultures (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $483,853 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES - JAPAN FOUNDATION ($264,610). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Kizuna Across Cultures have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $483,853 in grants to Kizuna Across Cultures, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Kizuna Across Cultures?
- UNITED STATES - JAPAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $264,610 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Kizuna Across Cultures find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Kizuna Across Cultures →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), 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