California · Nonprofit
Wayword Inc
Wayword Inc (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $285,413 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($77,106). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $278k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $285k
- Net assets
- $114k
What Wayword Inc does
Mission
Wayword, Inc. produces and distributes A Way with Words, a public radio show and podcast about language and how we use it. The educational program airs in more than 400 cities across the United States and reaches millions of listeners annually through radio, podcast distributors, and a lively online presence. Its digital community includes more than 922,208 social media followers, more than 65,000 active weekly podcast subcribers who download episodes millions of times per year, and more than 55,000 email newsletter subscribers.The nonprofit's mission is to educate, inspire, and connect people through language, bridging generations, backgrounds, and regions. Each week, co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett take listener calls and explore topics such as word origins, slang, grammar, regional speech, cultural identity, and family expressions. The show brings linguistic knowledge to everyday conversations in an accessible and engaging way.The nonprofits board, staff, and volunteers b
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Wayword, Inc. promotes public understanding of language by producing and distributing audio content for educational and cultural organizations, including public broadcasters and schools. Weekly episodes of Wayword's nationally distributed radio program, "A Way with Words," are made available at no cost nationwide, as are supplementary materials to support learning, community engagement, and family listening.The nonprofits board, staff, and volunteers are committed to advancing language education and celebrating linguistic diversity. Their work supports lifelong learning and meaningful dialogue in an increasingly interconnected world.
$257,125 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $257,125.
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 2018 to 2019, from $196k to $145k (−26%).
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: 2021 37%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of Wayword Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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.
Chief executive
Grant Barrett
CEO/Officer
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 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $840 → $46k.
5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 72% 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 Wayword 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
Wayword 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
74% 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 Wayword Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 94% · 2019 65% · 2020 58% · 2021 86% · 2022 59% · 2023 46% — 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
40% of Wayword Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
72% of Wayword 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 $79k that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from funders outside California, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $206k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
Wayword Inc receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $285k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Wayword Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6k on record.
- PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT$6k
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 Wayword 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Wayword 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 Wayword Inc?
- Wayword Inc (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $285,413 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($77,106). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Wayword Inc have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $285,413 in grants to Wayword Inc, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Wayword Inc?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $77,106 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Wayword 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.
Play a game about who funds Wayword →
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 15 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