Skip to content
Nonprofiteer
← ZCASH FOUNDATION

Form 990 for tax year 2024

Filed by ZCASH FOUNDATION.

Totals

Total revenue
$3,769,087
Total expenses
$7,952,534
Contributions and grants received
$4,430,505
Grants paid
$4,771,812
Program service revenue
$0
Investment income
-$661,418
Other revenue
$0
Total assets, end of year
$23,362,496
Total liabilities, end of year
$89,824
Net assets or fund balances, end of year
$23,272,672
Program services expenses (Part IX)
$7,265,249
Management and general expenses
$687,285
Fundraising expenses
$0
Program service expenses (Part III)
$7,265,249

Program services were 91.4% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Revenue

Part VIII, the statement of revenue.

  • 1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

    $4,430,505

  • 1g · Noncash contributions included above

    $4,422,105

  • 3 · Investment income

    total $13,843 · excluded $13,843

  • 7a · Gross sales of assets other than inventory

    securities $3,728,639

  • 7b · Less cost or other basis and sales expenses

    securities $4,403,900

  • 7c · Gain or loss

    securities -$675,261

  • 7d · Net gain or loss

    total -$675,261 · excluded -$675,261

Functional expenses

Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.

  • 1 · Grants to domestic organizations and governments

    total $902,400 · program services $902,400

  • 2 · Grants to domestic individuals

    total $498,800 · program services $498,800

  • 3 · Grants to foreign organizations and individuals

    total $3,370,612 · program services $3,370,612

  • 5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

    total $447,239 · program services $319,990 · management and general $127,249

  • 7 · Other salaries and wages

    total $474,181 · program services $421,603 · management and general $52,578

  • 8 · Pension plan contributions

    total $18,497 · program services $13,234 · management and general $5,263

  • 9 · Other employee benefits

    total $98,859 · program services $84,263 · management and general $14,596

  • 10 · Payroll taxes

    total $42,480 · program services $30,394 · management and general $12,086

  • 11b · Fees: legal

    total $173,994 · program services $2,808 · management and general $171,186

  • 11c · Fees: accounting

    total $59,731 · management and general $59,731

  • 11g · Fees: other

    total $1,432,422 · program services $1,415,208 · management and general $17,214

  • 12 · Advertising and promotion

    total $1,789 · management and general $1,789

  • 13 · Office expenses

    total $209,702 · program services $103,012 · management and general $106,690

  • 14 · Information technology

    total $10,198 · program services $9,878 · management and general $320

  • 17 · Travel

    total $12,829 · program services $12,384 · management and general $445

  • 19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

    total $81,088 · program services $78,272 · management and general $2,816

  • 23 · Insurance

    total $32,644 · management and general $32,644

  • 24a · Other expenses: Research expenses

    total $84,000 · program services $1,356 · management and general $82,644

  • 24b · Other expenses: Dues and subscriptions

    total $1,069 · program services $1,035 · management and general $34

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

  • 2 · Savings and temporary cash investments

    beginning of year $5,001,500 · end of year $2,872,025

  • 9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

    beginning of year $81,925 · end of year $28,701

  • 12 · Investments: other securities

    beginning of year $10,183,381 · end of year $19,572,744

  • 14 · Intangible assets

    beginning of year $889,026 · end of year $889,026

  • 17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses

    beginning of year $130,566 · end of year $89,824

  • 18 · Grants payable

    beginning of year $15,000 · end of year $0

  • 27 · Net assets without donor restrictions

    beginning of year -$3,726,888 · end of year $5,576,426

  • 28 · Net assets with donor restrictions

    beginning of year $19,737,154 · end of year $17,696,246

Mission and programs · 2024

Mission

The Zcash Foundation is a public charity that builds financial privacy infrastructure for the public good, primarily serving the users of the Zcash protocol and blockchain. The Foundation also supports other applications of zero-knowledge cryptography, as well as other approaches to private cryptocurrency.

Activities or mission (Part I)

The Zcash Foundation builds financial privacy infrastructure for the public good, primarily serving users of the Zcash protocol and blockchain.

  • Zcash Community Grants (ZCG, formerly Zcash Open Major Grants ZOMG) is a technical advisory board that constitutes a committee of the Zcash Foundation, under its bylaws. Grants are chosen by a committee of five members who are chosen by the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP) in an open election. Funding for ZCG's activities is provided via the Dev Fund specified in ZIP 1014.

    Expenses $5,070,084 · Grants $4,705,770

  • Protocol & Governance: The Zcash protocol and the open network it powers is valuable, privacy-protecting Internet infrastructure; it should be developed and maintained by an open and diverse community of experts and enthusiasts. It is a tool for financial privacy available to the general public. The Zcash Foundation acts as a steward of the Zcash protocol, providing leadership and supporting its continued maintenance and improvement.

    Expenses $981,559 · Grants $16,952

  • FROST: FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold) is a cryptographic protocol that enables efficient and secure threshold signing--where only a minimum number of participants are required to generate a valid signature. FROST advances the state of the art in threshold Schnorr signature schemes by significantly reducing network overhead and supporting concurrent signing operations without compromising security. Its novel design includes safeguards against known forgery attacks, making it a robust and flexible tool for modern cryptographic applications. The Zcash Foundation supports the continued development and adoption of FROST as part of its mission to advance privacy-preserving infrastructure.

    Expenses $590,019

  • Research: Technical decisions are best supported by scientific activities, such as rigorous validation, empirical measurement, and continued innovation and refinement. The Zcash Foundation therefore support these activities within our community. All cryptocurrencies, but especially Zcash, rely on cutting-edge contributions from the scientific research community, thus interaction with this community can also help the community stay healthy. We will encourage this scientific research and educate the public regarding the substance and benefits of these scientific developments.

    Expenses $97,111

  • Community: The Zcash Foundation supports the expansion of Zcash into a large and healthy community with diverse stakeholders, held accountable to our user-base in the broadest sense. Our goal is creating tools that help sustain open networks, which enable individuals to protect their privacy on their own terms. Privacy comprises both autonomy and consent, which are essential to human dignity and the healthy continuation of civil society.

    Expenses $526,476 · Grants $49,090

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

  • Andrew Miller

    Chairman/Treasurer

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Peter Van Valkenburgh

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Amber Baldet

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Jay Verret

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Marta Belcher

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Jack Gavigan

    Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $201,647
    From this org
    $201,647
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $201,647
    Bonus
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Deferred
    $0
    Nontaxable benefits
    $0
    Filer's total
    $201,647

  • Alex Bornstein

    Chief Operating Officer

    Total calculated
    $245,592
    From this org
    $233,500
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $12,092
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $211,500
    Bonus
    $22,000
    Other
    $0
    Deferred
    $0
    Nontaxable benefits
    $12,092
    Filer's total
    $245,592

  • Danika Delano

    Operations Director

    Total calculated
    $139,642
    From this org
    $126,042
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $13,600
    Hours/week
    40

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Answered yes

  • 3 · Form 990 of other organizations
  • 3 · Written employment contract
  • 3 · Approval by the board or compensation committee

Answered no

  • 4a · Severance or change-of-control payment
  • 4b · Supplemental nonqualified retirement plan
  • 4c · Equity-based compensation arrangement
  • 5a · Pay contingent on this organization's revenues
  • 5b · Pay contingent on a related organization's revenues
  • 6a · Pay contingent on this organization's net earnings
  • 6b · Pay contingent on a related organization's net earnings
  • 7 · Other non-fixed payments
  • 8 · Paid under the initial-contract exception

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

  • The Tor Project Inc

    $0

    Research & Development

  • FathomX Inc

    $0

    Research & Development

  • 37 Laines

    $0

    Education

  • Red-Dev Inc

    $0

    Research & Development

  • ZecHub Inc

    $0

    Research & Development

  • Vergara Technologies LLC

    $0

    Research & Development

Provenance

Return type
form_990
Tax year
2024
Filed
10 November 2025
IRS schema version
2024v5.2
Source object
202523149349301902

Check it against the return as filed: the GivingTuesday Data Lake hosts a public copy of the original XML.

The source document this was parsed from is served over the API, which is where bulk and document access live.