Oregon · Nonprofit
SOLVE
SOLVE (Oregon) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,829,905 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($614,156). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 54
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Solve does
Mission
Solve is an environmental nonprofit that began as a grassroots initiative and has grown into a nationally recognized model for volunteer-driven stewardship. Each year, Solve mobilizes thousands of volunteers across oregon and southwest washington to clean and restore neighborhoods and natural areas, fostering a culture of environmental care and community pride.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Detrash portland and clean & green connect like-minded volunteers who want to tackle the issue of litter in portland. Each week, we support events throughout the city and provide cleanup supplies, safety information, and disposal assistance for any who would like to improve their neighborhood through the simple act of cleaning up.
$462,035 spent36% of program spendingOregon spring clean up - one of the largest earth day activities in the nation, oregon spring clean up projects take place around the state involving volunteers in illegal dumpsite and neighborhood litter cleanups, invasive vegetation removal, native tree and shrub plantings and maintenance of watershed restoration sites.
$119,216 spent9% of program spendingBeach and riverside clean up - thousands of volunteers pick up trash, pull invasive vegetation and plant native trees along our waterways and beaches to improve wildlife habitat, erosion control and water quality.
$118,743 spent9% of program spendingProject oregon, oregon adopt-a-river, oregon adopt-a-beach, pick it up! Portland.
$597,340 spent$106,087 earned by the program46% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,297,334.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.6M to $3.7M (+42%).
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: 2018 35% · 2019 32% · 2020 21% · 2021 21% · 2022 47% · 2023 44% · 2024 40% · 2025 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of SOLVE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Kris Carico
CEO
Board chair
Lena Ulvi
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $129k → $275k.
11 of 54 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 SOLVE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 54 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
SOLVE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
74% 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 SOLVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 70% · 2019 65% · 2020 43% · 2021 52% · 2022 28% · 2023 31% — 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
27% of SOLVE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
58% of SOLVE'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 $767k that is directly attributable, 53% of it comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
SOLVE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SOLVE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $219k on record — $32k federal, $188k state.
- Department of the Interior$32k
- AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES$188k
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 SOLVE
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 Oregon
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
96%
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 SOLVE: 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 SOLVE?
- SOLVE (Oregon) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,829,905 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($614,156). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SOLVE have?
- IRS filings report 54 organizations giving $1,829,905 in grants to SOLVE, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOLVE?
- THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $614,156 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOLVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 54 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