Maryland · Nonprofit
Touchstones Discussion Project Inc
Touchstones Discussion Project Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $493,538 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($112,626). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $428k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $494k
- Net assets
- $351k
What Touchstones Discussion Project Inc does
Mission
Touchstones builds critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills through respectful and engaging discussion-based programs within the United States and internationally.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
First Accomplishment K-12 School Programming, Enrichment and After School Programs, Youth Workforce Development, Educational Conferences, Teacher Professional Development K-12 Program Expansion Through grants related to school program development, we expanded programming and services at two public-charter schools in Washington, DC in 2023. In addition, our sales of discussion curriculum went into 52 schools and districts serving and engaging an estimated 150 educators and 4,000 students, in addition to the thousands of teachers and students already using Touchstones at existing program sites. Our contract with the Bureau de la Education Francais in Manitoba, Canada provided digital access to Touchstones programs in French to hundreds of educators and more than 5,000 students. Higher Ed We supported continued expansion of programs in higher with new digital textbooks that were used by more than two dozen instructors to engage more than 650 students in First and Second Year seminar classes, a new course specifically for veterans, and students studying educational psychology at the University of Neveda, Las Vegas, as well as philosophy courses at the University of Rhode Island.
$203,573 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $203,573.
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 2017 to 2018, from $215k to $476k (+122%).
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: 2017 14% · 2018 4% · 2019 23% · 2020 9% · 2021 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
59% of Touchstones Discussion Project Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Stefanie Takacs
Executive Director
Board chair
Debra Valentine
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $73k → $130k.
9 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 Touchstones Discussion Project Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Touchstones Discussion Project Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
61% 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 Touchstones Discussion Project Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 96% · 2019 50% · 2020 36% · 2021 35% · 2022 56% · 2023 69% — 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
67% of Touchstones Discussion Project Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
59% of Touchstones Discussion Project Inc's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $200k that is directly attributable, 95% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $293k 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
Touchstones Discussion Project Inc receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $494k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding Touchstones Discussion Project Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $194k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$194k
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 Touchstones Discussion Project 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
40% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Touchstones Discussion Project 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 Touchstones Discussion Project Inc?
- Touchstones Discussion Project Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $493,538 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($112,626). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Touchstones Discussion Project Inc have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $493,538 in grants to Touchstones Discussion Project Inc, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Touchstones Discussion Project Inc?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $112,626 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Touchstones Discussion Project Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Touchstones Discussion Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 19 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