California · Nonprofit
THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC
THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,128,217 to it, the largest being THE GLEN AND OPAL BARNETT FOUNDATION ($255,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $556k
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $301k
What The Well in the Desert Inc does
Mission
Programs for poverty prevention, services for poverty prevention, and an organized effort to advocate for the poor
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
, meals a year to those in poverty, the homeless, and those with food needs. Daily nutritional meals to over 200 persons a day. Morning coffee, rolls and fruit. Saturday food distribution of healthy foods to working families in need,senior veterans, the disabled, and families with children in need. Emergency food boxes. Transportation services to medical and social services appointments.
$231,411 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $231,411.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $71k to $334k (+369%).
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: 2020 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
52% of THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 12 funders, grant income fell $109k → $101k.
10 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 WELL IN THE DESERT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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 WELL IN THE DESERT INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
36% 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 WELL IN THE DESERT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 49% · 2019 36% · 2020 18% · 2021 34% · 2022 28% · 2023 26% — 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
50% of THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
91% of THE WELL IN THE DESERT 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. $332k 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
THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 13,917 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,917 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE WELL IN THE DESERT 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
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 WELL IN THE DESERT 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 WELL IN THE DESERT INC?
- THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,128,217 to it, the largest being THE GLEN AND OPAL BARNETT FOUNDATION ($255,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $1,128,217 in grants to THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WELL IN THE DESERT INC?
- THE GLEN AND OPAL BARNETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $255,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WELL IN THE DESERT 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 Well in the Desert →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 40 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