How do I find funders for a grassroots civil rights and advocacy nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations, currently Fair Count Inc, American Center for Law and Justice Inc, Institute for Patients' Rights Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

What counts as a grassroots organization here?

Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.

How much grant money goes to grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations?

$568M reached 1,938 grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations from 3,764 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.

How recent is this data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Causes · Civil rights and advocacy · grassroots

Who funds grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations

The funders that back grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations are specialists, not generalists: Fair Count Inc gives them 318.9× the national rate, with 92% of its grants going here. These are the small organizations the big-institution funders usually miss, so the funders that show up here are the ones worth a small civil rights and advocacy nonprofit's time.

$568M

granted

1,938

organizations

3,764

funders

The short version

3,764 funders gave $568M to 1,938 grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations (grassroots (under $1M)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Fair Count Inc, giving 318.9× the national rate to grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is Texas Casa Inc, at $20M.
The grassroots civil rights and advocacy organization drawing the most is All Americans Vote, at $7M.

Funders most focused on grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations

Not the biggest checks, the most committed: each gives this size and cause an outsized share of its budget against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank.

Fair Count Inc318.9×$5M · 92% of its giving American Center for Law and Justice Inc273.1×$3M · 100% of its giving Institute for Patients' Rights Inc221.6×$2M · 100% of its giving Alliance for Justice194.9×$2M · 100% of its giving Americans for Prosperity Foundation179.1×$2M · 94% of its giving The Voter Participation Center173.5×$5M · 40% of its giving Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc150.2×$1M · 92% of its giving Equis Institute148.4×$2M · 54% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

Real grantmakers giving the most to grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations (donor-advised and mega-funds excluded).

1Texas Casa Inc$20M 2New Venture Fund$6M 3The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation$6M 4Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc$5M 5Fair Count Inc$5M 6The Voter Participation Center$5M 7Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc$4M 8The Andrew W Mellon Foundation$4M

Grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations that draw the most

Sized by grant dollars received. Pick one to see exactly who funds it.

1,928 other grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations$529M

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a grassroots civil rights and advocacy nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations, currently Fair Count Inc, American Center for Law and Justice Inc, Institute for Patients' Rights Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.
What counts as a grassroots organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.
How much grant money goes to grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations?: $568M reached 1,938 grassroots civil rights and advocacy organizations from 3,764 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.
How recent is this data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

Strange bedfellows

the named clusters of US funding

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

Size is median total revenue; cause is the recipient's NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File. Read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML across recent fiscal years, among (c)(3) funders and recipients resolved by EIN, with the regranting layer netted out. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.