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

Start with the funders most focused on large civil rights and advocacy organizations, currently Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc, H&H Evergreen Foundation, Greg Carr Foundation Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

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

$9.6B reached 718 large civil rights and advocacy organizations from 10,922 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 · large

Who funds large civil rights and advocacy organizations

The funders that back large civil rights and advocacy organizations are specialists, not generalists: Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc gives them 72.5× the national rate, with 97% of its grants going here. Large civil rights and advocacy institutions draw a deep funder base, 15 on average, so the competition for their attention is intense.

$9.6B

granted

718

organizations

10,922

funders

The short version

10,922 funders gave $9.6B to 718 large civil rights and advocacy organizations (large ($10M and up)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc, giving 72.5× the national rate to large civil rights and advocacy organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is Freedom Together Foundation, at $242M.
The large civil rights and advocacy organization drawing the most is American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc, at $763M.

Funders most focused on large 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.

Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc72.5×$175M · 97% of its giving H&H Evergreen Foundation62.8×$19M · 95% of its giving Greg Carr Foundation Inc60.3×$44M · 84% of its giving Civic Education Fund53.2×$17M · 80% of its giving Jewish Federation of Detroit50.7×$12M · 80% of its giving The Roe Foundation48.7×$12M · 76% of its giving The Ariadne Getty Foundation44.6×$7M · 79% of its giving Americans of Faith35.4×$3M · 94% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

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

1Freedom Together Foundation$242M 2National Endowment for Democracy$184M 3Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc$175M 4Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc$165M 5Hopewell Fund$165M 6Foundation to Promote Open Society$118M 7Lilly Endowment Inc$116M 8Donors Trust Inc$95M

Large civil rights and advocacy organizations that draw the most

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

708 other large civil rights and advocacy organizations$6.6B

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc$763M Alliance Defending Freedom$303M

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a large civil rights and advocacy nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on large civil rights and advocacy organizations, currently Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc, H&H Evergreen Foundation, Greg Carr Foundation 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 large organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: large ($10M and up). Cause is where each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear.
How much grant money goes to large civil rights and advocacy organizations?: $9.6B reached 718 large civil rights and advocacy organizations from 10,922 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 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 endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

Size is median total revenue; each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear. 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.