California · Nonprofit
WAVES PROJECT INC
WAVES PROJECT INC (California) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $493,245 to it, the largest being The Roger I & Ruth B MacFarlane Foundation ($225,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
WAVES PROJECT INC has grown faster than half of the 1,354 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,354 unclassified nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Foundation for Enhancing Communitiesshared funders
- The Hardy Bunch Foundationportfolio match
- Taproot Earthportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $11k → $76k.
1 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 WAVES 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
WAVES PROJECT INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
33% 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 WAVES PROJECT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 100% · 2019 99% · 2020 48% · 2021 57% · 2022 56% · 2023 99% — 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
14% of WAVES PROJECT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
WAVES PROJECT INC draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 stateis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 16 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Foundation for Enhancing Communitiesshared fundersPA · backs 23 organizations that share your funders
- The Hardy Bunch Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Taproot Earthportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Orca Free Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- A New Way of Life Reentry Projectportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Treved Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Creative Visions Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Surfing's Evolution & Preservation Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Clara Elizabeth Jackson Carter Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Foster Karney Trust Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pledges Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- OK Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding WAVES PROJECT INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $372k on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$372k
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 WAVES PROJECT INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WAVES 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds WAVES PROJECT INC?
- WAVES PROJECT INC (California) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $493,245 to it, the largest being The Roger I & Ruth B MacFarlane Foundation ($225,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WAVES PROJECT INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $493,245 in grants to WAVES PROJECT INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WAVES PROJECT INC?
- The Roger I & Ruth B MacFarlane Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $225,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WAVES PROJECT 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 16funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing