Illinois · Nonprofit
REFED INC
REFED INC (Illinois) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,917,464 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($10,000,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 71
- Grants received
- $41M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Refed Inc does
Mission
Refed catalyzes the food system toward evidence-based action to stop wasting food for the climate, environment, people, and the economy.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Capital & innovation program service accomplishments:refed's capital & innovation division continued to fund and unlock additional opportunities for advancing solutions to food waste through the catalytic grant fund. To date the fund has unlocked at least $30m in funding for its portfolio of grantees representing a 15x impact of refed's initial grant investment. In working directly with capital providers and those seeking capital, refed curated 17 connections leading to funding. More broadly, we identified and promoted 132 funding opportunities valued at over $240m through deal flow reports.
$2,457,234 spentof which $1,161,346 as grants37% of program spendingData & insights program service accomplishments:refed's insights engine has now reached over 195,000 unique visitors and the organization has documented nearly 3,000 meaningful use cases of stakeholders engaging with and applying the data and insights shared within. Refed also migrated its data collection capabilities to a web-based application in order to streamline food business data reporting, enhance security capabilities, and increase data processing efficiencies. Refed also advanced new research to enhance our understanding of food waste and related solutions in methane emission factors, production losses in beef and dairy, enhanced solution modeling in the manufacturing sector, and whole supply chain analyses of beef, yogurt, potatoes, strawberries, plums, and bananas.
$1,956,370 spent29% of program spendingBusiness initiatives program services accomplishments:refed notably expanded the membership and activities of the u.s. Food waste pact, a national voluntary agreement designed to help waste-generating businesses across the food system to accelerate progress toward their sustainability goals. Membership now includes food businesses from retail, food service, manufacturing, and qsr sectors, including representing over 60% of the u.s. Retail market share as measured by retail sales. Refed also continued to provide client-facing services to individual food businesses, helping to align food waste reduction, sustainability, and operational strategies. In total, refed engaged 46 businesses across the year.
$1,885,722 spentof which $75,000 as grants$398,215 earned by the program28% of program spendingOther program service accomplishments:refed's thought leadership and movement building efforts have helped to build an engaged audience of nearly 27,000 stakeholders from across the food system. The annual food waste solutions summit welcomed 727 attendees, its largest audience to-date. Refed also hosted 7 webinars and engaged in 36 additional speaking engagements. Our media reach included 429 media mentions and an overall reach of 5 billion.
$420,722 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,720,048.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2022 to 2023, from $3.9M to $10M (+157%).
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: 2021 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of REFED INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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.
Board chair
Pamela Murphy
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $1.9M → $10M.
19 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 REFED INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 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
REFED INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
57% 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 REFED INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 70% · 2020 32% · 2021 25% · 2022 19% · 2023 48% — 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
36% of REFED INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% 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
50% of REFED 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 $20M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 22 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
REFED INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 268 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 268 food & nutrition nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding REFED INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1k on record.
- TRAVEL - OUT OF STATE - GENERAL $1k
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 REFED 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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for REFED 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 REFED INC?
- REFED INC (Illinois) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,917,464 to it, the largest being GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ($10,000,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does REFED INC have?
- IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $40,917,464 in grants to REFED INC, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REFED INC?
- GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $10,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REFED INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 2019–2024), and the filings of 71 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