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California · Nonprofit

The Fistula Foundation

The Fistula Foundation (California) receives grants from 292 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,698,058 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($20,293,284). 178 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$21M
Funders on record
292
Grants received
$64M
Net assets
$30M
178/292 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 71%
01What it does

What The Fistula Foundation does

Mission

Fistula Foundation works to end the suffering caused by the childbirth injury obstetric fistula by getting as many women treated as possible. Additionally, the Foundation is focused on increasing the number of trained obstetric fistula surgeons to strengthen treatment capacity.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Obstetric fistula treatment and surgeon training for various hospitals and organizations in Africa, Asia and the United States.

    $16,533,204 spentof which $14,049,695 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $16,533,204.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($15M) Expenses 100 ($8.7M) Net assets 100 ($12M)2018 Revenue 73 ($11M) Expenses 122 ($11M) Net assets 91 ($11M)2019 Revenue 81 ($12M) Expenses 148 ($13M) Net assets 100 ($12M)2020 Revenue 90 ($13M) Expenses 131 ($11M) Net assets 130 ($15M)2021 Revenue 125 ($19M) Expenses 154 ($13M) Net assets 189 ($22M)2022 Revenue 97 ($14M) Expenses 189 ($16M) Net assets 151 ($17M)2023 Revenue 196 ($29M) Expenses 265 ($23M) Net assets 230 ($27M)2024 Revenue 142 ($21M) Expenses 228 ($20M) Net assets 256 ($30M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (142)Expenses (228)Net assets (256)Peer revenue range

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 $26M to $40M (+52%).

$15M
$14M
$20M
$23M
$30M
$26M
$40M
$41M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

94% of The Fistula Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,745 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$6.3M
’17
$318k
’18
−$670k
’19
$2.1M
’20
$5.3M
’21
−$1.9M
’22
$6.3M
’23
$1.4M
’24
2.7
months of
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

Pamela Lowney

COO/CEO in 2025

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed121210121291111
Joined·+0+0+3+2+0+3+3
No longer listed·0212313
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 67 funders to 120 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $21M.

50 of 292 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $5k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest Reger Family Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money The Fistula Foundation raised.

From the IRS filings of The Fistula Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 292 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

The Fistula Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

77% 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 The Fistula Foundation.

32%
largest funder
65%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 27% · 2019 34% · 2020 43% · 2021 34% · 2022 52% · 2023 72% — growing more concentrated.

“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

51% of The Fistula Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

69% of The Fistula Foundation'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 $19M that is directly attributable, 71% of it comes from funders outside California, across 36 states.

ME
NH
WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
KY
VA
MD
DE
AZ
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44M arriving through sponsors registered in 25 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

The Fistula Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,580 health nonprofits its size.

Operating margin7% · above the median
Months of reserve2.7mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)5% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,580 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024

Organizations like The Fistula 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 California

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

84% of spending goes to programs.

Program 84%Management 8%Fundraising 9%

Governance

6
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

85%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 38 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
HI
OK
MS
AL
GA
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Fistula 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 The Fistula Foundation?
The Fistula Foundation (California) receives grants from 292 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,698,058 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($20,293,284). 178 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does The Fistula Foundation have?
IRS filings report 292 organizations giving $63,698,058 in grants to The Fistula Foundation, 178 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of The Fistula Foundation?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $20,293,284 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like The Fistula Foundation find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 292 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