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, Third Way Institute, Priorities USA Foundation. 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 its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.

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

$3.5B reached 128 large civil rights and advocacy organizations from 5,267 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 gives them 82.4× the national rate, with 98% of its grants going here. Large civil rights and advocacy institutions draw a deep funder base, 41 on average, so the competition for their attention is intense.

$3.5B

granted

128

organizations

5,267

funders

The short version

5,267 funders gave $3.5B to 128 large civil rights and advocacy organizations (large ($10M and up)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Christian Advocates Serving, giving 82.4× the national rate to large civil rights and advocacy organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is Tides Center, at $109M.
The large civil rights and advocacy organization drawing the most is American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc, at $250M.

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 Serving82.4×$74M · 98% of its giving Third Way Institute81.3×$38M · 100% of its giving Priorities USA Foundation77.9×$26M · 99% of its giving Anti-Defamation League Foundation77.7×$23M · 100% of its giving North Main Street Fund70.5×$16M · 95% of its giving State Democracy Project70.5×$16M · 94% of its giving Greg Carr Foundation Inc68.7×$12M · 97% of its giving League of Conservation Voters Education68.6×$77M · 81% 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).

1Tides Center$109M 2Freedom Together Foundation$85M 3League of Conservation Voters Education$77M 4Christian Advocates Serving$74M 5New Venture Fund$56M 6The Ford Foundation$53M 7Donors Trust Inc$42M 8Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc$39M

Large civil rights and advocacy organizations that draw the most

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

118 other large civil rights and advocacy organizations$2.3B

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc$250M Equal Justice Initiative$134M Anti-Defamation League$128M

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, Third Way Institute, Priorities USA Foundation. 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 its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.
How much grant money goes to large civil rights and advocacy organizations?: $3.5B reached 128 large civil rights and advocacy organizations from 5,267 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.