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CURRENT INNOVATION NFP

EIN 81-2620127 CHICAGO, IL

Revenue 2023
$1,971,091
Expenses 2023
$1,596,425

Program services were 64.0% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
C32
Classification
1000
Street
200 W MADISON ST THIRD FLOOR

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2023

Mission

Current's mission is to grow an inclusive blue economy, accelerate innovation, and solve persistent water challenges.

  • Current is a Chicago-based water innovation hub launched in 2016 to help realize the region's economic and environmental potential as a water innovation leader. As a cross-sector convenor of local and global water sector stakeholders, Current builds networks, organizes events, and helps develop pilot projects that achieve environmental and economic equity. Current serves as a conduit for both technology and innovation, monitoring independently evaluating new ideas and technology in water management, and working with utilities, research institutions, businesses, and innovators to test new solutions. Current shares information with community-based organizations and serves as a trusted partner working towards economic inclusion and environmental justice. Current works to grow an inclusive blue economy by generating research and data to inform strategic priorities, driving collaborations among researchers, entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, utilities, and community partners. We work to keep water in focus as an economic development priority and create strategies to support education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and investment. We host events and convenings to strengthen our networks.Current accelerates innovation by maintaining a sophisticated understanding of the state of the art in water technology, and identifying and supporting the development of promising technologies that solve persistent and emerging water challenges. We convene the capabilities of our Current Research Consortium to bridge advanced fundamental science and practical, outcome-based applied research. We also pursue research funding opportunities and cross-institutional partnerships to strengthen the research ecosystem, driving more financial resources and expertise to priority problems. Current helps solve pressing water challenges by identifying and independently assessing new technologies and building partnerships to help promising innovations go to scale. We do this by testing technologies and recommending the best solutions for others to try, or for us to pilot, to help improve water quality and management. Current maintains a database of promising water technologies that we have sourced and "de-risked" evaluated for their potential to be implemented at-cost and at-scale. We continue to receive and evaluate these new technologies and serve as a neutral recommendation engine for our major water utilities in the region. Across all of our work, Current demonstrates a commitment to environmental justice and inclusion. We seek to address water challenges through solutions that advance an equitable water infrastructure: the technologies we identify and pilot help to ensure that all people have access to safe and clean water, and that water resources are resilient to climate change and other environmental stressors. We also foster the growth of a robust blue economy that provides training and career pathways for traditionally underrepresented groups, including women and individuals of color. Finally, our outreach and education programs seek to engage youth, with an emphasis on underserved students, and communities that have long been absent from environmental conversations. It is through this lens of equity and inclusion that we maximize the impact of our work in inventing, testing, and adopting promising new solutions that work for everyone.

    Expenses $1,021,815 · Revenue $19,200

As filed on the 2023 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Officers and directors · 2023

As listed in Part VII of the 2023 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • Venkat Atluri

    Chair

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Thrupti Shivakumar

    Treasurer

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Richard Assmus

    Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • MarySue Barrett

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Joanna Groden

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Andrea Holthouse Cheng

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Paul K Kearns

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Karen Kim

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Steven Kloos

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Susan Martinis

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Milan Mkrsich

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Brian Perkovich

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Jay Walsh

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Andrew Richardson

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Matthew Tirrell

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Michael Fassnacht

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Randy Corner

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Andrew Martin

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Nadya Mason

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Eric Perreault

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

  • Alaina Harkness

    Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $248,650
    From this org
    $243,994
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $4,656
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $243,994
    Bonus
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Deferred
    $4,470
    Nontaxable benefits
    $186
    Filer's total
    $248,650

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. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2023
    Revenue
    $1,971,091
    Expenses
    $1,596,425
    Contributions
    $1,939,859
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $1,277,102
    Expenses
    $1,367,900
    Contributions
    $1,248,803
    Grants paid
    $0

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

  • 2021 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,322,171
    Expenses
    $946,884
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,711,019

  • 2020 · 990

    Revenue
    $812,912
    Expenses
    $666,374
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,320,854

  • 2019 · 990

    Revenue
    $862,688
    Expenses
    $801,547
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,121,279

  • 2018 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,004,378
    Expenses
    $626,593
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,077,255

  • 2017 · 990

    Revenue
    $461,200
    Expenses
    $592,620
    Assets (EOY)
    $715,822

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all.

Grants made

No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.

Grants received

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 29 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2023, the newest we have parsed for this organization.