What Thousand Currents does

Thousand Currents is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 as IDEX and renamed in 2016, headquartered in San Francisco, California. It operates a solidarity philanthropy model that channels long-term, flexible, and unrestricted funding to grassroots groups and social movements in three regions: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. According to its own disclosures, the organization has moved more than $60 million to 650+ grassroots organizations across 85 countries since founding, reaching over 200 million people, and in 2025 announced a 10-year strategy committing to move $250 million directly and influence $750 million in resources to global movements.

The organization's product surface is organized around four donor-facing programs: the Thousand Currents Academy (a training program for grantmakers and resource mobilizers, with 15+ sessions in the U.S. and Europe since 2014 and 260+ graduates), Learning Journeys (experiential donor trips, including a planned 2026 trip to the Brazilian Amazon), Giving Circles (six-month or longer curated donor engagement cohorts), and the Center for Transforming Philanthropy (a dedicated division for donor education and research). It does not sell products or services; all revenue comes from voluntary donations and grants. Accepted contribution mechanisms include online donations via GiveLively, stocks/securities, IRA qualified charitable distributions, cryptocurrency via The Giving Block, workplace/matching gifts via Double the Donation, mail-in checks, and legacy giving.

The organization is governed by a board chaired by Pacific feminist activist Michelle Reddy and led by President and CEO Solomé Lemma, with senior vice presidents covering Operations, Finance, Global Programs, Philanthropic Partnerships and Influence, and the Center for Transforming Philanthropy. It holds a four-star Charity Navigator rating and a GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency, has no parent company or institutional investors, and operates as an autonomous, board-governed 501(c)(3) with an 11-50 person staff. No AI/ML, proprietary software, or technology platform is offered; distribution and donor engagement run on standard third-party SaaS (GiveLively, The Giving Block, Double the Donation, WordPress/Cloudflare, Google Analytics).

Name

Thousand Currents

Legal name

Thousand Currents

Website

https://www.thousandcurrents.org/

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Thousand Currents is a 501(c)(3) solidarity philanthropy organization that channels long-term, unrestricted funding to grassroots movements across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific, and runs the Thousand Currents Academy, Learning Journeys, and Giving Circles for donors and grantmakers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropy and Grantmaking Services

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Federated Giving Organizations (e.g., United Way-type) (BPAGAKAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Philanthropy & Foundations Advisory (Donor-Advised Funds, Endowments) (FSAAABAH), Major Gifts, Planned Giving & Endowment Development (EDALAOAC)

Keywords

• Grassroots grantmaking
• Donor education
• Foundation grants
• Movement funding
• Capacity building

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: Tax-deductible donations from individual donors made through secure online giving platform (GiveLively), credit card, or bank transfer.
2. Stock and Securities: Donors can contribute stocks or securities directly to Thousand Currents.
3. IRA Contributions: Tax-free qualified charitable distributions (QCD) from IRAs for donors aged 70.5 or older, which can count toward required minimum distributions.
4. Cryptocurrency Donations: Partnership with The Giving Block enables cryptocurrency donations.
5. Legacy Giving: Donors can name Thousand Currents as beneficiary in wills or revocable living trusts.
6. Workplace Giving: Employer matching gift programs and pre-tax deductions through workplace giving campaigns.
7. Foundation Grants: Funding from private foundations aligned with justice, care, and climate work.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Thousand Currents is a 501(c)(3) philanthropic intermediary that channels long-term, flexible, unrestricted funding to grassroots groups and social movements in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. Its core offerings include grantmaking to community-led initiatives, donor education through the Thousand Currents Academy, experiential Learning Journeys to movement sites, and Giving Circles that connect major donors with Global South movements.

Product overview

Thousand Currents is a philanthropic organization that provides grantmaking, capacity building, and donor education services to support grassroots movements in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. The organization's core offerings include grantmaking to grassroots groups and social movements, the Thousand Currents Academy (a training program for grantmakers and donors), Learning Journeys (experiential programs visiting movement sites), and Giving Circles (donor engagement programs). These services are unified by a solidarity philanthropy approach that centers mutual trust and long-term partnership with movement formations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Thousand Currents Academy: A one-of-a-kind training program for grantmakers, individual donors, resource mobilizers, and philanthropic practitioners committed to learning about social-justice based philanthropic partnerships with communities in the Global South.
• Giving Circles
• Center for Transforming Philanthropy

Products and services

• Thousand Currents Academy A multi-day training program for grantmakers, individual donors, resource mobilizers, and philanthropic practitioners focused on social-justice based philanthropic partnerships with communities in the Global South.
• Giving Circles A six-month or longer program that supports, challenges, and inspires major donors to build community, deepen understanding of their role as funders, and develop fundraising skills for climate justice movements in the Global South.
• Learning Journey to the Amazon

Quantifiable outcome

• Supported Indigenous communities in Guatemala to reclaim over 70,000 hectares of land and safeguard critical water sources
• +6 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• GiveLivelycoreGTM or Marketing PartnerGiveLively is the primary online donation platform for Thousand Currents, providing secure processing for credit card and bank transfer donations. This is a critical distribution channel for individual donors making contributions to the organization.
• The Giving BlockcoreTechnology or IntegrationThe Giving Block enables Thousand Currents to accept cryptocurrency donations, expanding giving options for donors who prefer this method.
• Double the DonationminorGTM or Marketing PartnerDouble the Donation provides the workplace matching gift verification service on Thousand Currents' website, helping donors identify if their employer will match their contribution.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Global Greengrants Fund: Global Greengrants Fund makes small, fast, flexible grants directly to environmental and climate justice grassroots groups worldwide. It is among the closest direct peers to Thousand Currents in mission, recipient profile, and trust-based funding model, with overlapping geographic reach.
• Grassroots International: Grassroots International provides grants and movement-building support to social justice organizations in the Global South, with explicit emphasis on food sovereignty, climate justice, and Indigenous rights. Directly comparable to Thousand Currents on mission, partner profile, and solidarity-philanthropy framing.
• Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights: Urgent Action Fund provides rapid-response grants to women and LGBTQIA+ human rights defenders globally, including in the Global South. It is a direct peer in grantmaking to grassroots movements, with a similar trust-based, flexible-funding posture.
• Global Fund for Women: Global Fund for Women is a public foundation funding women's rights movements worldwide, with strong overlap in donor base, mission, and grassroots grantmaking approach. Comparable on scale, geographic reach, and movement-relations model.
• Tides Foundation: Tides Foundation is a major fiscal sponsor and re-granting intermediary that channels philanthropic resources to progressive social movements. Directly comparable to Thousand Currents' re-granting and intermediary role, though Tides operates at substantially larger scale in the U.S.
• Foundation for a Just Society: Foundation for a Just Society is a private foundation that funds movements for gender, racial, and economic justice internationally, with explicit commitment to long-term, flexible support to Global South movements. Directly comparable on donor posture, grantmaking values, and geographic orientation.

Emerging players

• Peace Direct: Peace Direct supports locally led peacebuilding organizations in conflict-affected countries, often via re-granting and capacity-building intermediaries. It overlaps with Thousand Currents' solidarity-philanthropy and movement-partner model, though its thematic focus is narrower (peacebuilding vs. climate/economic justice).

Broad incumbents

• Ford Foundation: The Ford Foundation is one of the largest U.S. private foundations, with global programs in economic justice, climate, and democracy. It is a broad incumbent that increasingly espouses trust-based, long-term funding—overlapping thematically but at a vastly larger scale and broader remit than Thousand Currents.
• Open Society Foundations: Open Society Foundations is a major global grantmaker supporting rights, governance, and justice movements worldwide. It shares the Global South orientation and movement-grantmaking model with Thousand Currents but operates at multi-billion-dollar scale across many more issue areas.
• Aga Khan Foundation: The Aga Khan Foundation funds long-term community development across South Asia, Central Asia, and East Africa, including climate adaptation and rural livelihoods. It is a broad incumbent with overlapping geographic footprint and grassroots focus, though operating with significantly larger resources and more programmatic scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/1000currents
• Facebookfacebook.com/thousandcurrents

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Thousand Currents