California · Nonprofit
THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC
THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,542,550 to it, the largest being CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION ($1,600,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $-431860
What The Shadowserver Foundation Inc does
Mission
See schedule oshadowserver's mission is to make the internet more secure by bringing to light vulnerabilities, malicious activity and emerging threats. Since 2004, shadowserver has been investigating malicious internet activity, collecting malware with its related analysis and meta data, working with law enforcement in various capacities, and sharing infection and malicious data with appropriate network owners. Shadowserver also provides educational presentations worldwide while encouraging the open sharing of data within the security industry and with vendor and government organizations. Shadowserver has emerged as one of the world's leading resources for internet security reporting and malicious activity investigation and maintains a global infrastructure spanning 90 countries. The organization is funded from sponsorships, grants and charitable donations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Special projects: (1) law enforcement special projects team - a team of people and their efforts to pursue and take down cyber-criminal activities and infrastructures. (2) registrar of last resort, a special purpose dns registrar for registering and managing malicious domain names used for malware/botnet command and control, particularly high-volume domain generation algorithms (dgas). (3) the shadowserver alliance. (4) the shadowserver public dashboard. (5) other
$2,981,032 spent$11,900 earned by the program88% of program spendingBackend management system: projects for management, upgrades, and expansion of the shadowserver data center and related equipment to include development of supporting technologies for new and existing missions and maintenance of existing data storage and query systems, and creation of daily reports (threat intelligence feeds) to the internet defender community. Includes maintenance of the public shadowserver dashboard.
$270,930 spent8% of program spendingCore data collection projects: (1) sinkholing, a project to redirect malicious traffic by taking over malicious domains in order to seize or disrupt botnets and warn victims of cybercrime; (2) honeypot/honeynet, a project to develop and maintain a worldwide set of emulated vulnerable systems to capture and analyze malicious internet traffic; (3) malware repository, a project to collect malware at scale and analyze the malware, which also includes the execution of the malware in sandboxes.
$143,517 spent$100,000 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,395,479.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $1.4M to $2.4M (+71%).
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.
97% of THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Piotr Kijewski
Trustee, CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $400k → $1.4M.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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 SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
25% 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 SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2023 79% — 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
72% of THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5k 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
THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC has grown faster than half of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $50k on record.
- Department of Justice$50k
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 THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Stichting the Shadowserver Foundation Europe · exempt
- Stichting Registrar of Last Resort Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION 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 THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC?
- THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,542,550 to it, the largest being CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION ($1,600,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $2,542,550 in grants to THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC?
- CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE SHADOWSERVER FOUNDATION INC 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 Shadowserver →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), 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