Kentucky · Nonprofit
ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC
ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $844,182 to it, the largest being PEOPLE'S ACTION INSTITUTE ($485,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $324k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $844k
- Net assets
- $180k
What Root Cause Research Center Inc does
Mission
Root Cause Research Center - We build structured tenant-lead campaigns and produce knowledge in solidarity with communities under threat of displacement, surveillance, and police violence. We define our base-building practices as (1) expanding the number of people committed to struggling alongside you politically; (2) developing their skills, analysis, and leadership; and (3) deepening our relationships with them. Our base-building practices include regular canvasses and phone banks to connect with new people; deepening relationships with people in our base through regular one-on-ones; providing training for members to develop skills and analysis; and identifying members of our base to develop into leaders and working with them on leadership development plans. Our target base is poor and working-class people in Kentucky, who are impacted by houselessness and police violence, especially Black people and people living in rural areas. We build economic power by organizing tenant unions in
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Root Cause Research Center - We build structured tenant-lead campaigns and produce knowledge in solidarity with communities under threat of displacement, surveillance, and police violence. We define our base-building practices as (1) expanding the number of people committed to struggling alongside you politically; (2) developing their skills, analysis, and leadership; and (3) deepening our relationships with them. Our base-building practices include regular canvasses and phone banks to connect with new people; deepening relationships with people in our base through regular one-on-ones; providing training for members to develop skills and analysis; and identifying members of our base to develop into leaders and working with them on leadership development plans. Our target base is poor and working-class people in Kentucky, who are impacted by houselessness and police violence, especially Black people and people living in rural areas. We build economic power by organizing tenant unions in apartment buildings for collectively bargained leases and political power by fighting for policies that protect tenants.
$226,920 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $226,920.
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.
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 $101k to $184k (+82%).
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.
100% of ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $275k → $160k.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC’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
ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
91% 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 ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 73% · 2022 94% · 2023 63% — 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.
Where its funders are
ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $140k 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
ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER 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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER 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 ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC?
- ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $844,182 to it, the largest being PEOPLE'S ACTION INSTITUTE ($485,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $844,182 in grants to ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC?
- PEOPLE'S ACTION INSTITUTE is the largest funder on record, with $485,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 Root Cause Research Center →
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 7 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