New York · Nonprofit
RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC
RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC (New York) receives grants from 120 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,036,889 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($5,013,000). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 120
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Rainbow Railroad USA Inc does
Mission
Rainbow railroad provides humanitarian assistance and protection to individuals facing persecution or violence based on their sexual orientation and gender. The organization supports people seeking safety from state-enabled violence and murder in countries all over the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Emergency and humanitarian support programs:in 2025, we focused on our emergency travel support (ets) and five(5) complimentary pathway programs, where we supported a total of 25,376 individuals. Ets provides life saving advice and resources, in 2025 we evacuated 85 individuals through this program. Cash assistance:we provided lifesaving support to individuals at risk of persecution because of their sexual orientation. In 2025 we supported 355 individuals with direct cash assistance, which was used for accommodations, food, healthcare, transportation and communication etc.grassroots mobilization and crisis response:in collaboration with the local partners organization, in 2025, we built and sustained partnerships with 83 organizations across 48 countries and 7 regions, with the aid of our partners, we supported 17,855 individuals using this pathway. Post-relocation:in 2025, we expanded our post-relocation support for lgbtqi+ individuals. This support includes the housing and livelihood assistance fund (hlaf) which provides emergency cash assistance grants directly to lgbtqi+ asylum seekers and other lgbtqi+ migrants in the usa and canada. This also includes our community support…
$2,904,184 spentof which $1,151,533 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,904,184.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2021 to 2022, from $1.2M to $5.4M (+361%).
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: 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Rebecca Mcfarlane
Interim CEO, head of operations
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 46 funders, grant income rose $312k → $5.9M.
29 of 120 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% 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 RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 120 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
RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
89% 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 RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 46% · 2019 59% · 2020 19% · 2021 24% · 2022 21% · 2023 84% — 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
31% of RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
84% of RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC'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 $1.6M that is directly attributable, 68% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 20 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC
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 New York
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
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Rainbow Railroad · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC: 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 RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC?
- RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC (New York) receives grants from 120 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,036,889 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($5,013,000). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC have?
- IRS filings report 120 organizations giving $10,036,889 in grants to RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $5,013,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RAINBOW RAILROAD USA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Rainbow Railroad USA →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 120 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