Arizona · Nonprofit
LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION
LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION (Arizona) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,192,132 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,479,450). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $9.2M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Local First Arizona Foundation does
Mission
Local First Arizona Foundation lfaf provides community and economic development programs and support to the people, businesses, and neighborhoods of communities throughout arizona.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
LOCAL BUSINESS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:Local First Arizona Foundation is on a mission to build equitable systems for Arizonas local businesses and communities that create a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable Arizona economy. Our small business programs are designed to incubate, accelerate and celebrate entrepreneurship, with a focus on developing entrepreneurship in low-income or under-resourced communities. We support aspiring entrepreneurs and established independently owned local businesses alike. For businesses in search of opportunities to strengthen and grow their operations, we provided on-on-one consulting to 3,500 small and under-resourced businesses in 2024. Our Business Accelerator programs graduated 168 owners from the greater Phoenix area, Sedona, Cottonwood, Globe and Miami Arizona.
$3,945,857 spentof which $220,891 as grants$60,425 earned by the program42% of program spendingSUSTAINABILITY: To increase environmental responsibility locally, the Green Business Bootcamp equipped 49 small businesses with a plan and funding in place to implement projects that will conserve their energy, water, or waste and reduce operational costs. The program has served the Greater Phoenix and Tucson metro areas as well as in the Verde Valley, which is a rural area. As a green nonprofit, Local First signature events diverted 70% of waste from the landfill to reuse, compost and recycle. This included the Arizona Fall Festival, which attracted 20,000 attendees, as well as Devour, a two-day culinary event with more than 80 small, local restaurants.
$2,273,675 spentof which $3,050 as grants$91,400 earned by the program24% of program spendingFOOD BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY GARDENS: In 2024 more than 135 food business startups were incubated in our community kitchens across Mesa, South Phoenix, and Maryvale, and 85 additional food businesses began operations from participating in our restaurant start-up boot camp. Due to the demand for these services, another kitchen incubator opened in early 2025. In addition, Local First provided weekly childrens cooking classes to more than 68 low-income students of color who learned about nutrition as well as cooking skills. Each participant has the opportunity to take home 5 meals for the week. Many of these same students join us on the weekends in our community garden to learn gardening and harvesting skills, all of which reduces food insecurity in our community.
$1,606,711 spent$69,837 earned by the program17% of program spendingARIZONA ECONOMIC RESOURCE CENTER: IN 2024, the Local First Arizona Economic Resource Center enabled 243 Arizona -based nonprofits, rural municipalities, and tribal nations to access $62 million in grants for critical local and regional projects such as essential infrastructure, broadband, solar projects, remote healthcare clinics, food access, treatment facilities, education, arts and culture, and emergency preparedness. These grants will transform Arizona communities that are most in need. To date the Arizona Economic Resource Center has enabled agencies to access $118 million in grants. Also, Local First, as the States federally designated Rural Development Council, partnered with community colleges across 5 counties to develop a consistent and strategic workforce development program to benefit rural jobseekers and regional employers.
$1,459,392 spentof which $32,175 as grants$106,500 earned by the program16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,285,635.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.6M to $3.2M (+105%).
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 20% · 2018 27% · 2019 19% · 2020 81% · 2021 38% · 2022 53% · 2023 67% · 2024 54%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Kimber Lanning
Founder and CEO
Board chair
Andre Whittington
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $310k → $2.0M.
9 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
75% 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 LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 26% · 2019 26% · 2020 25% · 2021 27% · 2022 19% · 2023 30% — 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
22% of LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
71% of LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M 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
LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 659 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 659 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.8M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.2M
- Small Business Administration$1.0M
- Environmental Protection Agency$470k
- National Science Foundation$62k
- Department of the Interior$30k
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 LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION: 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 LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION?
- LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION (Arizona) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,192,132 to it, the largest being ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,479,450). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $9,192,132 in grants to LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION?
- ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,479,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 55 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