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California · Nonprofit

WAYMAKERS

WAYMAKERS (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,930,996 to it, the largest being CENTER TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING ($461,702). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$32M
Funders on record
64
Grants received
$2.9M
Net assets
$4.2M
29/64 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 3%
01What it does

What Waymakers does

Mission

Waymakers builds safer communities by helping individuals make their way through conflict and crisis to a place of strength and stability. We redirect youthful offenders, stabilize children dealing with mental health concerns, counsel troubled families, resolve community conflicts, empower and support victims of crime, and provide prevention education in schools and community organizations.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Youth development services/wraparound programs: provide prevention and intervention services for high-risk youth, including family counseling, parent education, youth enrichment, and alcohol, tobacco, and drug prevention services. Wraparound programs provide services to youth with complex needs and emotional, mental health, or behavioral issues. These services include in-home and community-based case management, counseling, mental health rehabilitation services, housing assistance, and career readiness skills for young offenders, as well as youth experiencing mental illness, truancy, and substance abuse issues. These programs aim to promote greater independence, increase self-reliance, and improve social competence. The program served 4,720 clients throughout the year.

    $12,001,729 spent$10,707 earned by the program
    42% of program spending
  2. Victim/witness assistance: provides comprehensive assistance services for all victims and witnesses of crime within the county of orange, including victim assistance, witness services, restitution processing, and specialized programs for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, homicide, gang violence, elder abuse, human trafficking, and hate crimes. The program served 22,372 clients throughout the year.

    $9,288,948 spent$29,155 earned by the program
    32% of program spending
  3. Crisis residential services and huntington beach youth shelter: provide short-term crisis intervention programs in laguna beach and tustin for youth ages 13-17 to stabilize them and facilitate family reunification. The program also provides emergency, temporary residential services in huntington beach for runaway, abused, and troubled teens in crisis. Both services include parent counseling. The programs served 1,241 clients throughout the year.

    $7,213,377 spent
    25% of program spending
  4. Dispute resolution services: provides a voluntary process of conflict resolution in which a trained mediator guides disputants to a mutually satisfactory agreement. Mediators offer an alternative to formal small claims or civil harassment court procedures. Mediations frequently address conflicts between neighbors, consumer-merchant disputes, landlord-tenant issues, and other unresolved concerns involving parties with ongoing business or personal relationships. The program served 6,611 clients throughout the year.

    $182,041 spent$5,400 earned by the program
    1% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $28,686,095.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($20M) Expenses 100 ($19M) Net assets 100 ($4.1M)2018 Revenue 107 ($21M) Expenses 108 ($21M) Net assets 104 ($4.3M)2019 Revenue 111 ($22M) Expenses 113 ($22M) Net assets 108 ($4.5M)2020 Revenue 124 ($25M) Expenses 129 ($25M) Net assets 103 ($4.3M)2021 Revenue 128 ($25M) Expenses 132 ($25M) Net assets 101 ($4.2M)2022 Revenue 132 ($26M) Expenses 131 ($25M) Net assets 121 ($5.0M)2023 Revenue 157 ($31M) Expenses 165 ($32M) Net assets 111 ($4.6M)2024 Revenue 164 ($32M) Expenses 169 ($32M) Net assets 91 ($3.8M)2025 Revenue 161 ($32M) Expenses 163 ($31M) Net assets 101 ($4.2M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (161)Expenses (163)Net assets (101)Peer revenue range

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 $6.8M to $10M (+55%).

$6.1M
$6.9M
$6.8M
$10M
$11M
$8.7M
$11M
$13M
$13M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 91% · 2018 91% · 2019 94% · 2020 94% · 2021 95% · 2022 95% · 2023 96% · 2024 96% · 2025 95%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

99% of WAYMAKERS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 268 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$559k
’17
$413k
’18
$182k
’19
−$225k
’20
−$176k
’21
$1.0M
’22
−$584k
’23
−$59k
’24
$366k
’25
0.7
months of
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

Ronnetta Johnson

Chief executive officer

Board chair

Joe Mccarthy

Board president

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed141716192726303128
Joined·+6+2+4+11+1+5+5+3
No longer listed·33132146
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $175k → $269k.

13 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 WAYMAKERS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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

WAYMAKERS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left

46% 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 WAYMAKERS.

16%
largest funder
39%
top three
~15
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 72% · 2019 51% · 2020 35% · 2021 14% · 2022 55% · 2023 19% — 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

37% of WAYMAKERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 WAYMAKERS's grant income comes from California funders.

ID
MT
MN
IL
NY
NV
IN
CA
MO
VA
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $685k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

WAYMAKERS's funding base is broadening — from 13 funders to 16 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin1% · below the median
Months of reserve0.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 152 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding WAYMAKERS receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.8M on record.

Federal$3.8M
grants $3.8Mcontracts $0
17
18
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top agencies
  • Department of Justice$2.1M
  • Department of Health and Human Services$1.7M

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 WAYMAKERS

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

91% of spending goes to programs.

Program 91%Management 8%Fundraising 1%

Governance

19
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WAYMAKERS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 WAYMAKERS?
WAYMAKERS (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,930,996 to it, the largest being CENTER TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING ($461,702). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does WAYMAKERS have?
IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $2,930,996 in grants to WAYMAKERS, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WAYMAKERS?
CENTER TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING is the largest funder on record, with $461,702 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WAYMAKERS 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.

Play a game about who funds Waymakers →

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 64 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