What is the difference between the largest and the most committed funders of civil rights and advocacy?

The largest by dollars are Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and The Ford Foundation, but they spread money across many causes. The most committed concentrate on civil rights and advocacy: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc gives 52× the national rate, with 98% of its grants going there.

How can a civil rights and advocacy nonprofit find funders?

Look beyond the biggest names to the specialists, the funders giving civil rights and advocacy an outsized share of their budget, and to the states where civil rights and advocacy money concentrates, led by New York. Both are listed on this page.

How recent is this civil rights and advocacy funding data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the two years with complete coverage. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Funding by cause

Who funds civil rights and advocacy

$24.4B reached 14,869 civil rights and advocacy organizations across the 2022 and 2023 filings. The money concentrates: the few largest organizations draw a heavy share of it.

$24.4B

granted

14,869

organizations

The short version

$24.4B in tracked US grants reached 14,869 civil rights and advocacy organizations across the FY2022 and FY2023 IRS filings.
The single largest recipient, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc, drew $762M, 3% of all tracked civil rights and advocacy funding.
The most committed funder is American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc, which gives 52× the national rate, with 98% of its grants going to civil rights and advocacy.
Most civil rights and advocacy money lands on organizations in New York, 19% of the tracked total.

Funders most focused on civil rights and advocacy

Not the biggest checks, the most committed. Each funder's share of giving to civil rights and advocacy, against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank. The multiple is how many times the national rate it gives.

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc52×$124M · 98% of its giving Alliance for Global Justice Corp46.3×$45M · 91% of its giving Our American Future Foundation45.1×$168M · 85% of its giving American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California Inc40.1×$13M · 89% of its giving Bend the Arc - a Jewish Partnership for Justice39.6×$15M · 85% of its giving Thousand Currents38.2×$71M · 73% of its giving NRA Foundation Inc37.4×$76M · 71% of its giving Human Rights Campaign Foundation36.4×$9M · 86% of its giving

Organizations that draw the most

The civil rights and advocacy organizations receiving the most grant money, sized by dollars. Pick one to see who funds it.

14,859 other civil rights and advocacy organizations$21B

Where the money lands

The states whose organizations draw the most civil rights and advocacy money.

New York$4.6B · 19%

Washington, D.C.$4.5B · 19%

California$3.2B · 13%

Virginia$780M · 3%

Massachusetts$770M · 3%

Illinois$635M · 3%

Largest funders of civil rights and advocacy

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund$1.7B The Ford Foundation$1.1B Tides Foundation$738M New Venture Fund$689M National Philanthropic Trust$518M Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc$485M Foundation to Promote Open Society$451M The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation$445M

Funders by organization size

Who funds civil rights and advocacy organizations at each size, with the funders most focused on them. Useful if you are small and the big-institution funders are not a fit.

grassroots civil rights and advocacy$1.8B mid-size civil rights and advocacy$7.9B large civil rights and advocacy$10.8B

Questions and answers

What counts as civil rights and advocacy in this data?: Each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission; where that is unclear we fall back to the recipient's IRS activity category. Civil rights and advocacy covers every grant placed there, counted by where the money lands.
What is the difference between the largest and the most committed funders of civil rights and advocacy?: The largest by dollars are Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and The Ford Foundation, but they spread money across many causes. The most committed concentrate on civil rights and advocacy: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc gives 52× the national rate, with 98% of its grants going there.
How can a civil rights and advocacy nonprofit find funders?: Look beyond the biggest names to the specialists, the funders giving civil rights and advocacy an outsized share of their budget, and to the states where civil rights and advocacy money concentrates, led by New York. Both are listed on this page.
How recent is this civil rights and advocacy funding data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the two years with complete coverage. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

State money flows

the interactive map of money crossing state lines

Each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission; where that is unclear we fall back to the recipient's IRS activity category. Grant figures are read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.