Thousand Currents

CharityWatch is unable to provide a letter grade rating for Thousand Currents because it is a fiscal sponsor organization. Fiscal sponsors are organizations primarily designed to aid in the incubation of new charities by lending those charities the sponsor's tax-exempt status. This allows newly formed organizations to offer tax deductibility on the donations they receive and to avoid paying tax on most forms of income. In exchange, the fiscal sponsor typically collects administrative fees from the charities it is sponsoring, while also providing them with back-end administrative services such as accounting, legal, fiduciary oversight, and financial management. Charities that are in the process of forming or applying for their own tax-exempt status will often partner with a fiscal sponsor temporarily with the goal of eventually spinning off into a fully separate organization once they formally obtain 501(c)(3) public charity status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

Like other types of charities, fiscal sponsors are required to file an IRS tax Form 990 with the IRS each year. Many larger fiscal sponsors are also required to have an independent audit of their finances conducted annually. However, reporting rules generally do not require a fiscal sponsor to provide separate breakouts of the finances of each of the charities it is sponsoring. Rather, the fiscal sponsor's total revenue and expenses are reported in aggregate and include its own financial activities, as well as the financial activities of all the charities it is sponsoring. This makes it impossible for a charity rating organization to judge the financial efficiency of any of the individual organizations included in the sponsor's financial reporting. 

CharityWatch's inability to apply our methodology to Thousand Currents does not imply a negative or positive evaluation. More information about Thousand Currents and its partners can be found on the charity's website. Visit ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer to view a copy of Thousand Currents' 2023 tax filing. 

According to the Thousand Currents 2023 tax filing, EIF reports re: Description of Organization Mission (IRS Form 990, Schedule O re: Part III, Line 1):

"While Thousand Currents' fiscal sponsorship of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMFNF) ceased officially on June 30, 2020, we continue to erroneously receive donations intended for BLMFNF. Any donation received by thousand currents, intended for BLMFNF is tracked as a liability (Payable) on our balance sheet and paid to BLMGNF periodically and/or at fiscal year-end. We have not taken a fee for any of theses funds since the end of the fiscal sponsorship."