California · Nonprofit
THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE
THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 157 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,134,929 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($3,854,100). 108 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.5M
- Funders on record
- 157
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $12M
What The Independent Institute does
Mission
Established in the entrepreneurial spirit of its home in silicon valley, the non-profit, non-partisan independent institute employs innovative thinking to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Disseminating ideas: independent deploys best-in-class transmedia campaigns to connect its rigorous research to targeted audiences, encouraging the application of these ideas into the culture and community in winning the battle of ideas. These activities include publishing the work in various formats (book, journal article, or other publication), and then aggressively marketing the results to position the findings across major opinion audiences. Independent organizes conferences and media programs, and repackages the findings to communicate to different kinds and levels of audiences. We utilize online platforms and social media in targeting audiences on those matters that will directly affect them. These activities attract over 1 million website visitors, half a million social media followers, and 5.5 billion media impressions per year.
$2,586,715 spent$109,195 earned by the program51% of program spendingSparking entrepreneurship & innovation: independent reverses government growth by spotlighting wrongdoing and offering practical, tech-forward solutions grounded in natural law. We generate solutions in business, housing, healthcare, entitlements, the environment, and global prosperity. Our california golden fleece awards, award-winning books, studies, spanish website, and multi-media campaigns share our solutions with civic leaders, the media, and the public. Our work has been introduced in national legislation, contributed to the elimination of the individual healthcare mandate, motivated reform in the california department of water resources and department of forestry and fire prevention, and has been signed into law in california.
$1,449,051 spent28% of program spendingEducating the next generation: independent engages and inspires young people and parents with the principles of liberty, and empowers parents to select the best education for their children. Our satirical youtube series, love gov, applies free-market thinking to housing, employment, healthcare, education, and privacy, and has achieved well over 7.4 million views primarily from millennials. This year, we launch love gov season two with a complementary website and social media portfolio. Our internships and youth-focused events offer hands-on learning, and our efforts to build awareness for school choice, affordable private school models, and higher education reforms are expanding educational opportunity for all.
$573,848 spent11% of program spendingDefending civil liberties: independent reminds the public, media, and civic leaders about constitutional limits on government and the civil liberties those limits protect. Our principled, peer-reviewed research critically reviews policies and approaches to tort liability, criminal justice, constitutional law, property rights, civil liberties, foreign policy, and human morality to preserve and expand individual liberty. Our research and solutions are disseminated through award-winning books, studies, events, regional and national multi-media campaigns, and have inspired legislative testimony before a u.s. House committee, senate judiciary committee, and have been cited multiple times by the u.s. Supreme court.
$508,437 spent10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,118,051.
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.
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 $8.2M to $13M (+54%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Mary L G Theroux
Chairman and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 37 funders to 75 funders, grant income rose $709k → $4.1M.
19 of 157 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 157 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 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
42% 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 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 35% · 2019 25% · 2020 21% · 2021 30% · 2022 34% · 2023 19% — 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
54% of THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 33 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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.
Organizations like THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 50 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- David J & Mary Lg Theroux Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: 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 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE?
- THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 157 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,134,929 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($3,854,100). 108 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 157 organizations giving $21,134,929 in grants to THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 108 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE?
- Donors Trust Inc is the largest funder on record, with $3,854,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE 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 Independent Institute →
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 157 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