California · Nonprofit
THOUSAND CURRENTS
THOUSAND CURRENTS (California) receives grants from 200 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,466,305 to it, the largest being WAVERLEY STREET FOUNDATION ($40,000,000). 105 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $20M
- Funders on record
- 200
- Grants received
- $120M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Thousand Currents does
Mission
Through our grant making program, Thousand Currents partners with organizations and movements in the global south that are creating lasting solutions to societal challenges. Our partners develop solutions that are innovative and impactful. They work to ensure their communities have access to healthy and locally grown food, are able to enjoy economic prosperity that generates wellbeing for all people, and live in a safe and healthy environment that supports abundant life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grants and grantee services: in addition to providing financial resources to partners in africa, asia, and latin america, Thousand Currents organizes local and transnational learning exchanges and facilitates strategic networks and alliances. Through the climate leaders in movement action fund (clima), Thousand Currents works in collaboration with peers to increase resources to our grassroots partners.
$49,101,786 spentof which $44,698,559 as grants97% of program spendingPhilanthropic organizing and outreach: Thousand Currents works to educate, train and support philanthropists to engage in meaningful and transformative giving through programs such as the Thousand Currents academy which are housed under Thousand Currents' center for transforming philanthropy. The center for transforming philanthropy is a comprehensive, timely, and field-building approach to shifting practices in the philanthropy.
$1,734,405 spent3% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $50,836,191.
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 2019 to 2020, from $6.5M to $83M (+1173%).
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 0% · 2021 1% · 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of THOUSAND CURRENTS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Solome Lemma
President & CEO
Board chair
Shilpa Alimchandani
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 34 funders to 62 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $19M.
54 of 200 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 THOUSAND CURRENTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 200 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
THOUSAND CURRENTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
44% 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 THOUSAND CURRENTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 62% · 2019 40% · 2020 19% · 2021 40% · 2022 40% · 2023 54% — 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
27% of THOUSAND CURRENTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
72% of THOUSAND CURRENTS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $42M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
THOUSAND CURRENTS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 190 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 190 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like THOUSAND CURRENTS
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THOUSAND CURRENTS: 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 THOUSAND CURRENTS?
- THOUSAND CURRENTS (California) receives grants from 200 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,466,305 to it, the largest being WAVERLEY STREET FOUNDATION ($40,000,000). 105 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THOUSAND CURRENTS have?
- IRS filings report 200 organizations giving $120,466,305 in grants to THOUSAND CURRENTS, 105 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THOUSAND CURRENTS?
- WAVERLEY STREET FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $40,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THOUSAND CURRENTS 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 200 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