DECIRA
NONPROFIT RESEARCH AND VETTING FOR FUNDERS

See every option.Know each one.Stand behind the decision you make.

Decira is building a profile of every charity that files a detailed tax return, with more than 100 data points on most profiles, kept current as new returns arrive. When a decision calls for more, we go deeper with more than 150 data points on most, an analyst's review, and recommendations on where to look next.

Other tools give you data. Decira tells you what it means.

IN PILOT WITH FIVE INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS
Private foundation · $100M+ Private foundation · $1B+ Private foundation Corporate foundation ×2

You can't fund an organization you don't know.

Knowing a nonprofit well means reading its tax filings, checking its registrations, searching court records and government sanctions lists, following the news and asking around. Few teams have the hours to do that for every decision, so many decisions rest on reputation and on organizations the team already knows.

Some of the organizations best matched to your goals never come up at all. They're filed under a category nobody would think to search.

HOW IT WORKS, AND WHAT'S DIFFERENT

Search. Discover. Decide.

1
Search

Describe the work you want to fund and find the organizations doing it, no matter how they're categorized.

Decira searches by the work you describe.
2
Discover

More than 100 data points on most profiles: finances, leadership, who else funds it, and how it compares with its peers. The reading is done, so your time goes to the decision.

Decira does the reading and traces every fact to its source.
3
Decide

When a decision calls for more, most reviewed profiles go past 150 data points, and an analyst tells you what they mean and what to ask. Every judgment is marked as the analyst's, so you can show your board what you relied on.

Decira adds an analyst's judgment.

We don't make the funding decision. We make sure you can defend the one you make.

WHAT EACH STEP COVERS
From every tax-exempt organization on record to the ones you can evaluate.
1.96M Every organization the IRS lists as tax-exempt, including trade groups, clubs and associations. Where we start.
1.64M The charities and foundations among them, which can generally receive tax-deductible gifts. Look up any charity by name.
397K The charities required to file a yearly return detailed enough to evaluate, about one in four.* We're building a profile of every one that files electronically. 168K so far. Search them by the work and see the full record.
Your shortlist Reviewed: an analyst's read on the ones you're deciding on, most past 150 data points.
Alongside them, 73K funders mapped to the grants listed on their own filings. IRS counts as of September 2026. Decira's counts update live.*Charities with $200,000 or more in gross receipts, or $500,000 or more in year-end assets, file the full IRS Form 990. Smaller ones may file the shorter 990-EZ, and those with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less an online postcard with no financial detail. Private foundations file Form 990-PF at any size. Churches aren't required to file. Data points counted across a profile's filings, 19 October 2026: 70% of documented profiles carry more than 100, and those built from the shorter 990-EZ about 60. Most reviewed profiles built from Form 990 filings go past 150 data points, counting what the review adds.
1 · SEARCH

Search for the work, not the label.

Each nonprofit carries one category code on its IRS record, and the code often doesn't fit the work or is missing. Of the 2,921 organizations whose main work includes job training, only 711 are classified under the IRS employment category.

The other 2,210 were doing the work all along. They just weren't filed where you'd look.

job training
Filed under the IRS employment category711
Doing the work2,921
Organizations whose main work includes job training, and how many of them the IRS category holds. Decira profiles, 19 October 2026.
2 · DISCOVER & 3 · DECIDE

Discover the record. Decide with an analyst's read.

Most documented profiles carry more than 100 data points from the public record. A reviewed profile adds more research, more checks and an analyst's read; most go past 150 data points in all. Below is part of a sample; Riverbend Community Kitchen and every figure in it are fictional.

A REVIEWED PROFILE, IN PART
ReviewedFund with ConditionsMedia favorableCurrent filing FY24
Riverbend Community Kitchen
EIN 00-0000000Columbus, OHRegistered as K36 · Food & Agriculture

Riverbend Community Kitchen prepares and delivers meals to older adults and families in central Ohio, serving about 410,000 meals in 2024 from two kitchens, and runs a culinary job-training program.

PrimaryfoodseniorsAdditionalfamiliesjob training

Where it works: Local · OH · Plain-language summary · not analyst-reviewed · read Sep 8, 2026

Mission, as filed To nourish our neighbors and build skills for work through shared meals. Organization-reported · FY24 Form 990
Decide

Decira review

Analyst reviewed · written by the analyst · reviewed 27 Sep 2026

About 88% of spending goes to programs and reserves cover about five months, both in line with meal programs of this size. Media coverage is favorable, centered on the opening of its second kitchen. The 2023 operating deficit lines up with a one-time grant ending. Worth raising with the organization: two foundations provide at least 38% of its contributions, so what happens to the meal program if one steps back?

Coverage themesSecond kitchen openingMeal delivery

Risk indicators

Analyst-reviewed · through FY24
  1. Operating deficit in the last three years medium
    FY23 margin -3.1%
Is it healthy

Financial health

Organization-reported · Form 990 · FY24 · against 146 K36 · Food & Agriculture peers
Revenue by fiscal year FY19 $4.4M; FY20 $5.0M; FY21 $5.4M; FY22 $5.7M; FY23 $6.0M; FY24 $6.6M $4.4M FY19 $5.0M FY20 $5.4M FY21 $5.7M FY22 $6.0M FY23 $6.6M FY24
Revenue, 6 filings on file · +50% since FY19
Revenue
$6.6M
+9% on FY23
Peers’ median +5% · middle half -3% to +12% This organization: within the middle half, above the median.
Expenses
$6.2M
Total expenses
Net assets (EOY)
$2.4M
Staff
64
employees, FY24
Year by year · 6 filings on file
FigureFY24Dec 2024FY23Dec 2023FY22Dec 2022FY21Dec 2021FY20Dec 2020FY19Dec 2019
Revenue and expenses
Total revenue$6.6M$6.0M$5.7M$5.4M$5.0M$4.4M
Total expenses$6.2M$6.2M$5.5M$5.0M$4.7M$4.2M
Surplus or deficit$440K-$190K$220K$360K$260K$160K
Leadership

Leadership & Compensation

Organization-reported · FY24 Form 990
Highest officer pay
$142K
Total officer pay
$388K
Top as share of total
37%
Officers reported
16
Total compensation, all staff
$3.1M
Pay from related organizations
Reported zero
Top 4 of 4 by total compensation (Part VII D+E+F) · titles only
TitleTotal comp% of expenses
Executive Director$142K2.3%
Director of Operations$98K1.6%
Director of Development$84K1.4%
Executive Chef$64K1.0%
CEO pay: 2.3% of expenses ($142K from the organization), within the middle half, above the median. The CEO is the top-paid person on the return.
Peers’ median 2.0% · middle half 1.5% to 2.8%
Principal officerJordan ReyesExecutive Director
Development leadSam WhitfieldDirector of Development
Organization-reported · FY24 Form 990 · not yet verified current
Governance & compliance

Governance

Conflict-of-Interest Policy: Yes Whistleblower Policy: Yes Document Retention Policy: Yes Independent Audit: Yes Audit Committee: Yes Board Minutes Documented: Yes Committee Minutes Documented: Yes 990 Reviewed by Board Before Filing: Yes CEO Pay Set Independently: Yes Officer Pay Set Independently: Yes Excess benefit transaction reported (Part IV 25a): No
92% independent board 12 of 13 voting members independent

Organization-reported · FY24 Form 990. Reviewed flags are summarized above.

This is a reviewed profile. A documented profile is built from the same filings, without the analyst's review, screening, flags, checks and badges, or the extra detail the review adds, like the per-person pay table.

The rest of the profile picks up from here. Who backs it · What it runs · What others say · Legal status

The same diligence questions, in seven areas.

Every reviewed profile works through the same 108 questions an experienced grantmaker would ask. We mark each one: answered from the record, looked for and not found, a question to ask the organization, or not yet covered. At the foot of every profile, a bar for each area shows how much of it the record answers.

14Financial health
29Programs & impact
14Leadership & compensation
17Governance
8Legal status & compliance
8Transparency & grant management
18Media & external evidence

An analyst reads the answers and the gaps together, so what's missing shapes the review as much as what's found. Reviewed profiles are also screened against government sanctions lists, with an analyst reviewing every match, and compared with their peers.

RESEARCH

What we've learned from reading the filings

We read the filings of every organization we profile, not only the ones in front of you. That's how each profile compares an organization with its real peers, and it reveals patterns no single profile shows. We publish what we find.

YOU CAN'T FUND WHAT YOU CAN'T FIND
what one category code leaves out
44%of organizations whose one main activity is food sit outside the food category
41%of organizations whose one main activity is housing sit outside the housing category
21%of all 1.6M registered charities have no category code
DECIRASource: Decira analysis of the IRS registry and filings
One category code per organization

The IRS registry has room for one category code per nonprofit. Even organizations with one main line of work often sit outside the category for it, and many have no code at all. That's why Decira lets you search for the work itself.

For your decisions: search by category and you can miss two in five or more of the organizations doing the work, and for some kinds of work, three in four.

Two funnels: 804 of 119,000 grantmaking foundations, under 1%, give two-thirds of the $100 billion foundations pay out, and 5,737 of 395,900 charities filing a 990 or 990-EZ, 1.4%, take in two-thirds of the $760 billion charities receive in contributions and grants.
The money is concentrated on both sides of the field

804 foundations give two-thirds of foundation grant dollars. 5,737 charities take in two-thirds of the contributions and grants charities receive.

For your decisions: the rest of the field shares the remaining third. Strong options for your goals may sit outside the organizations most funders already know.

See the full chart
Four fields that could each show as a blank, next to what Decira shows instead: checked and not found, not yet run, reported as zero, not on the form they file.
Absence isn't a finding

A blank field can mean four different things: we looked and found nothing, the check hasn't run yet, it was reported as zero, or it isn't on the form the organization files. Our financial tables say which one it is.

For your decisions: a blank is neither a clean bill of health nor a warning sign. Knowing which kind it is tells you what to ask.

See the full image
When new research is published. What the filings show, nothing else.

Who it's for

Program officers

Check applicants and grantees before the docket closes, and find strong organizations you didn't know about.

Foundation leaders and boards

Invest with the full record in front of you, and be ready to answer for every grant you approve.

Corporate giving teams

Put your community investment behind organizations a person has checked, and meet your vetting requirements in the process.

Philanthropic advisors

Give every client the same depth of diligence, without starting over each time.

See a demo on an organization you're considering

Name an organization you're weighing, or the work you want to fund. We'll show you Decira on it live, rather than on a sample.

Thirty minutes, with one of the founders. If it fits, we can set you up the same day.

Prefer to pick a time now? Book a conversation.

PRICING

From $10,000 a year: every documented profile, with five reviewed profiles of your choice included.

We'll cover team plans and additional reviewed profiles on the call.

We reply within 24 hours.

Built by people who lived the outcome

David Burke
David Burke

Former Chief Programs Officer at Team Rubicon, where he led 1,000+ disaster responses. Did the work alongside hundreds of partner organizations and learned the differences that made the most impact.

[email protected]
Mike Monroe
Mike Monroe

Former Director at the Clark Foundation, where he deployed $176M and helped set strategy for a $1.4B sunset foundation. Made these decisions and answered for them.

[email protected]