New York · Nonprofit
TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC
TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC (New York) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,434,100 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,681,749). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $3.3M
What Transportation Alternatives Inc does
Mission
To reclaim new york city from cars, transforming our streets into safe, sustainable, and equitable places to walk, bike, take transit, gather, and thrive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Advocacy - the overarching goal of ta's advocacy program is to engage and empower new yorkers to increase biking, walking, and public transit options and achieve vision zero - the revolutionary goal of zero deaths or serious injuries caused by traffic. Ta turned out activists to hundreds of separate public-facing events, including community board meetings, rallies, community visioning sessions, and petition drives, and held scores of meetings and engagements with elected officials. As a result of these activities, ta achieved numerous campaign milestones this year, including positive community board votes, the endorsement of elected officials, and the full implementation of many projects.
$2,225,442 spent$20,000 earned by the program54% of program spendingResearch and reporting - ta employs original research and reporting to push advocacy campaigns and policy areas forward. Through the leadership of its director of research and senior editor, ta researches and releases signature policy reports. In addition to these reports, ta has released more than a dozen original articles on the internet website, www.medium.com, combining personal storytelling with statistical evidence to explore policies from restorative justice in traffic violence cases to tactical urbanism as a response to fiscal crisis.
$842,542 spent20% of program spendingOutreach tours and events - ta's annual bike tours provide an entry-level path to on-street bicycling, including the borough tour in staten island, which offers a choice of either 35-mile or 50-mile family-oriented bicycle parades that loop through neighborhoods where new york city's bicycling population has exploded. Ta also cemented their reputation as an international leader on vision zero by hosting their annual vision zero cities conference in october 2023. The conference brought together traffic safety experts and policymakers from throughout the country and around the world to share common challenges, practical guidance, and cutting-edge solutions.
$675,973 spent$428,271 earned by the program16% of program spendingMembership - ta has approximately 2,500 dues-paying members, which form the core of their supporter base. Throughout the year, members are kept up to date on ta's work and how members can get involved. Ta hosts membership events throughout the year to thank supporters and get them excited about ta's priority programs and campaigns. Ta organizes a citywide bike to work day annually, and hundreds of thousands of bicyclists demonstrate how simple using bicycles for transportation can be.
$371,756 spent$4,143 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,115,713.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.3M to $3.2M (+146%).
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. 6 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.
Board chair
Janet Liff
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 26 funders to 50 funders, grant income rose $942k → $2.9M.
16 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 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
TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
59% 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 TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 66% · 2019 28% · 2020 34% · 2021 26% · 2022 29% · 2023 28% — 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
57% of TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
57% of TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES 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 $7.4M that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 22 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES 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 TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC?
- TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC (New York) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,434,100 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,681,749). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $17,434,100 in grants to TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC, 65 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $4,681,749 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Transportation Alternatives →
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 99 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