Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION
TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,501,349 to it, the largest being EAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($8,250,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $576M
What Truth Initiative Foundation does
Mission
Truth initiative's mission is to achieve a culture where young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine. The purposes for which the foundation is formed are to support (1) the study of and programs to reduce youth tobacco product usage & youth substance (cont. On sch o)abuse in the states and (2) the study of and educational programs to prevent diseases associated with the use of tobacco products in the states.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Youth and young adult public education:truth initiative's public health education campaign truth has been a leading driver in reducing youth and young adult tobacco use for two decades. The truth campaign seeks to prevent youth and young adults from starting to use nicotine and to help those who become addicted to quit through public service ads, influencers, social media and on-the-ground events. Campaign impact has been proven in multiple published studies. Published research has also established the cost effectiveness of the program. The current focus of the campaign since 2018 is the nation's youth vaping epidemic and the harms of nicotine addiction for young people. Recent research shows that awareness of the truth campaign is related to preventing youth vaping initiation, slowing progression and promoting young people who do vape to quit.
$68,991,887 spentof which $289,701 as grants77% of program spendingResearch policy and practice: truth initiative is a leader in tobacco control research and policy with a strong team of research scientists in our schroeder institute for tobacco research and policy studies and a dedicated team of policy professionals who participate in the ongoing discussion around the best approaches for reducing tobacco related death and disease. Schroeder institute scientists produce peer-reviewed papers on issues related to tobacco control and prevention, speak at national and local conferences, and along with our policy team create a suite of resources and guidance on issues from e-cigarettes, to tobacco imagery on screens to tobacco industry marketing tactics for use by tobacco control professionals at both the local and national level. Our policy team regularly weighs in on federal regulatory approaches to tobacco control via formal comments and letters to fda and other federal agencies.
$7,658,473 spentof which $517,326 as grants$127,932 earned by the program9% of program spendingTobacco cessation innovations: truth initiative's innovations center builds and deploys scalable and sustainable digital tobacco cessation interventions. Our programs have served millions of tobacco users ages 13+ across the u.s. Over the past 15+ years. Enterprise versions of our programs extend our public health impact through strategic partnerships with employers, health plans, and health systems and generates revenue to support the mission driven work of the foundation. The innovations center is internationally recognized for its rigorous research on digital interventions for tobacco cessation and its field-leading contributions to the academic literature.
$7,077,241 spent$1,363,356 earned by the program8% of program spendingCommunity and youth engagement:community and youth engagement (caye) recruits, educates, and mobilizes young people, particularly bipoc and lgbtq communities, to take action on smoking, vaping, and nicotine on behalf of truth's policy priorities. Caye engages high school and college student leaders to educate decision-makers at the community, state, and national level about the impact vaping has on young people. We do this through digital and on-the-ground activism and leadership training programs. Caye works with colleges, universities and students to institute tobacco-free campus policies. Caye works with other non-profit organizations, particularly those serving populations disproportionately impacted by tobacco, to engage their young people on issues related to tobacco. In addition, we work with schools to educate students about the dangers of nicotine, cannabis and opioid misuse through truth initiative's high school curriculums, vaping: know the truth and prescription drug safety: know the truth.
$5,426,368 spentof which $641,677 as grants6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $89,153,969.
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 2021 to 2022, from $1.0B to $834M (−17%).
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 4% · 2018 3% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 4% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
17% of TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (7% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 9 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
Hon Mike Moore
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $676k → $1.1M.
4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 79% 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 TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION’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
TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 57% · 2019 91% · 2020 97% · 2021 93% · 2022 87% · 2023 88% — 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
18% of TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
79% of TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION'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 $2.4M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,843 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,843 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.8M on record — $3.5M federal, $267k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$3.5M
- CT$160k
- OR$108k
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 TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
24%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 30 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION: 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 TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION?
- TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,501,349 to it, the largest being EAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($8,250,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $11,501,349 in grants to TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION?
- EAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $8,250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TRUTH INITIATIVE FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 14 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