California · Nonprofit
The Freedom Story
The Freedom Story (California) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,541,882 to it, the largest being PURE INC ($576,370). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $696k
What The Freedom Story does
Mission
We protect children in Northern Thailand from trafficking and exploitation through locally-led prevention that educates children, strengthens families, and builds safer communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
New services include missional partnerships The Freedom Story engaged with to help prevent child trafficking.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Education: The Freedom Story offers scholarships to children at-risk of being trafficked, helping them to stay in school. The scholarships cover tuition, uniforms, books, and associated costs of education. The program also provides mentorship support with after-school and weekend activities, home visits, child and youth development programs that strengthen performance in school and resilience through challenges.
$349,832 spentof which $264,981 as grants42% of program spendingPartnerships: The Freedom Story partners with local CSOs, churches and other entities to prevent trafficking in their own communities. We conduct training, capacity building and provide technical support to promote the prevention of trafficking, sharing about our methodology and leading practices to protect children, strengthen families and build safer communities.
$172,061 spentof which $89,904 as grants21% of program spendingHuman Rights: The human rights program conducts outreach, training sessions, and workshops that teach children and their families about their legal and human rights. This includes training for children and youth to recognize, prevent, and report child abuse, as well as training for their families on worker and citizenship rights. The program includes legal advice and aid in select cases.
$141,982 spentof which $66,245 as grants17% of program spendingLivelihoods: The Freedom Story works with select families that are at-risk of being involved with trafficking to develop alternative sources of income via sustainable farming, and helping them develop entrepreneurial skills, network with other local companies to scale up their business, and build to new markets to sell their vegetable and poultry products to.
$128,615 spentof which $52,050 as grants15% of program spendingEthical Storytelling: The Freedom Story promotes ethical storytelling practices through awareness raising, training and capacity building.
$39,854 spent5% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $832,344.
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.
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 $295k to $579k (+96%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of The Freedom Story’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 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
Lucy McCray
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $421k → $333k.
9 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 The Freedom Story’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 26 of 27 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 Freedom Story has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
72% 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 Freedom Story.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 72% · 2019 39% · 2020 54% · 2021 49% · 2022 31% · 2023 30% — 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
47% of The Freedom Story's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
The Freedom Story draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
The Freedom Story runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 718 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 718 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Freedom Story
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% 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 The Freedom Story: 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 The Freedom Story?
- The Freedom Story (California) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,541,882 to it, the largest being PURE INC ($576,370). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Freedom Story have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $2,541,882 in grants to The Freedom Story, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Freedom Story?
- PURE INC is the largest funder on record, with $576,370 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Freedom Story 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.
Play a game about who funds Freedom Story →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 27 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