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· Public charity

Alliance Defending Freedom

ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM exists to keep the door open for the gospel by advancing every person's god-given right to live and speak the truth.

$12M
Granted FY2025still arriving
37
Grants FY2025still arriving
23
States reached
$8.7M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

International$17MCivil Rights$6.0MReligion$2.0MCrime & Legal$1.0MEducation$477kHuman Services$356kHealth$311kPublic Benefit$194kOther$0
02FY2025 · 37 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 37 grants below total $10,491,044 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $11,927,970 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,436,926 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k5 grants · $36k
  • $10k–50k26 grants · $532k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $307k
  • $250k+2 grants · $9.6M
$20,000
Median grant
23
States reached
$112M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL$8,715,495
ADF ACTION$900,000
ENVISAGE LAW$96,852
CONSOVOY MCCARTHY PLLC$80,219
LIBERTY COUNSEL$75,000
BOYDEN GRAY PLLC$55,000
ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER$47,800
DILLON PLLC$31,833
SIMMS SHOWERS LLP$31,637
FOX ROTHSCHILD LLP$30,351
BODANZA & BODANZA LAW OFFICE$30,000
HOSTETTER LAW GROUP LLP$28,000
WADLEIGH STARR & PETERS PLLC$27,726
BURKE LAW GROUP$25,066
CHILD & PARENTAL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN$25,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $138k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Pennsylvania Family Institute: $62k → 12%Life on Belay Inc: $40k → 5%Pennsylvania Family Institute: $20k → 12%Boat People SOS: $6k → 6%PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY INSTITUTE: $10k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

AK
VT
NH
WA
MT
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
AZ
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
LA
GA
TX
FL

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$26M · 61 repeat orgs$1.6M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +66% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.

61 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2025, 43 since wound down; 19 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

61
47

Total granted

$26M
$1.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+16%

Still filing today

39%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $480k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Civil RightsEducationReligionHealthHuman ServicesArts & CultureOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • AA
    ADF ACTION
    3× · 2023–2025 · $1.9M · revenue +386% · 100% of their budget
  • AL
    American Liberties Institute Inc
    3× · 2017–2019 · $664k · revenue +354% · 46% of their budget
  • FC
    FIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICY
    3× · 2017–2019 · $380k · revenue +399%

Funded once

  • CL
    Charis Lex PC
    one grant, 2021 · $160k
  • NW
    NATHAN W KELLUM
    one grant, 2017 · $62k
  • IF
    INSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS' RIGHTS INC
    one grant, 2024 · $60k · revenue 0%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Americans United for Life Inc

AUL is an organization that advances the human right to life in culture, law, and policy.

Civil Rights
2
American Center for Law and Justice -District of Columbia Inc

The protection of human and religious rights and liberties and the education of the public on such rights and liberties.

Civil Rights
3
Frontiers of Freedom Institute

To educate the public on constitutional issues and public policy matters. We are dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, peace through strength, limited government, free enterprise, and the values embodied in the Declaration of…

Public Benefit
4
International Catholic Jurists Forum Inc

The International Catholic Jurists Forum (ICJF) was established to produce, compile, and share resources on fundamental human rights under attack in the regional and international human rights protection systems. It operates as a forum for…

Religion
5
Advocates for Faith and Freedom

Organized for religious purposes to promote the gospel of jesus christ by protecting, defending and advocating religious civil liberties

Crime & Legal
6
First Liberty Institute

First liberty institute provides pro bono legal services to advance and defend religious liberty for individuals, churches, and other ministries and organizations.

Civil Rights
7
Pro-Life Action League Inc

Dissemination of pro-life information

Civil Rights
8
Alliance Defending Freedom

Alliance defending freedom exists to keep the door open for the gospel by advancing every person's god-given right to live and speak the truth. we contend for the truth in law, policy, and the public square, and equip the alliance to do…

Civil Rights
9
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

10
Academic Freedom Alliance

The Organization's members are dedicated to protecting the rights of faculty members at colleges and universities to speak, instruct, and publish without fear of sanction or punishment.

Philanthropy
11
The Center for American Liberty

The center for american liberty leads the fight for free speech and civil liberties across the country. by leveraging its nationwide network of litigators, the center for american liberty zealously advocates on behalf of individuals whose…

Crime & Legal
12
Liberty Counsel Action

Liberty Counsel Actions mission is to advance religious freedom the sanctity of human life the family responsible government national security and support for Israel through education and advocacy on the national state and local levels.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ethics and Public Policy Center Inc and the most unlike its peers is National Museum of American Religion Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyLgbtq+ Community SupportChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Women & Girls Leadership De…Pregnancy Support ServicesCommunity FoundationsPolicy Research and Advocacy
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 18 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%8%<5yr14%18%5–10yr19%28%10–20yr16%18%20–35yr13%28%35–55yr16%3%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%89%<5yr14%2%5–10yr19%3%10–20yr16%1%20–35yr13%4%35–55yr16%0%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 89% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.8% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.8%1/127
the rest of the field
13%
240,395/1,819,438

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

45 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 45 of the 127 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
20
Early backer (in before they grew)
43/45
Grantees still filing
34/45
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL — $17,326,580 · ReligionALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL+3 more — $87,518 · ReligionKellum Law Firm — $535,992 · OtherKellum Law FirmFREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE DEFENSE FUND INC — $529,025 · OtherFREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE D…MAUCK & BAKER LLC — $408,106 · OtherMAUCK & BAKER LLCWADLEIGH STARR & PETERS PLLC — $237,114 · OtherLIBERTY COUNSEL INC — $225,000 · Other+94 more — $3,819,865 · Other+94 moreADF ACTION — $1,907,186 · Civil RightsADF ACTIONAmerican Liberties Institute Inc — $663,807 · Civil RightsAmerican Libe…FIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICY — $380,000 · Civil RightsFIDELIS CENTE…Susan B Anthony List Education Fund — $125,000 · Civil Rights+6 more — $230,015 · Civil Rights+6 moreThe Family Foundation of Virginia — $251,600 · EducationPATRICK HENRY COLLEGE — $123,926 · EducationRELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE INC — $100,000 · EducationThe Abigail Adams Institute Inc — $54,500 · EducationAmerican College of Pediatricians — $40,000 · EducationWitherspoon Institute Inc — $30,000 · EducationCENTER FOR ARIZONA POLICY INC — $22,000 · Education+1 more — $20,928 · EducationCHILD & PARENTAL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN INC — $273,125 · Crime & LegalAMERICAN FREEDOM LAW CENTER INC DBA AFLC % CINDY PAGE — $80,000 · Crime & LegalETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER INC — $180,000 · Public BenefitPENNSYLVANIA FAMILY INSTITUTE — $92,475 · Human ServicesLIFE ON BELAY INC — $40,000 · Human ServicesBOAT PEOPLE S O S INC — $5,783 · Human Services
Religion$17,414,098Other$5,755,102Civil Rights$3,306,008Education$642,954Crime & Legal$353,125Public Benefit$180,000Human Services$138,258

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL — $17,326,580 over 2y, 100% of budgetADF ACTION — $1,907,186 over 3y, 100% of budgetAmerican Liberties Institute Inc — $663,807 over 3y, 46% of budgetFREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE DEFENSE FUND INC — $529,025 over 4y, 14% of budgetFIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICY — $380,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetCHILD & PARENTAL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN INC — $273,125 over 5y, 19% of budgetThe Family Foundation of Virginia — $251,600 over 3y, 8.7% of budgetETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER INC — $180,000 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetSusan B Anthony List Education Fund — $125,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetPATRICK HENRY COLLEGE — $123,926 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetRELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE INC — $100,000 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetROADS OF SUCCESS — $96,601 over 3y, 5.6% of budgetWOMENS LIBERATION FRONT — $95,015 over 3y, 4.8% of budgetASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS — $95,000 over 4y, 3.5% of budgetPENNSYLVANIA FAMILY INSTITUTE — $92,475 over 3y, 3.8% of budgetINDIANA FAMILY INSTITUTE INC — $89,145 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetAMERICAN FREEDOM LAW CENTER INC DBA AFLC % CINDY PAGE — $80,000 over 3y, 6.4% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS' RIGHTS INC — $60,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetThe Abigail Adams Institute Inc — $54,500 over 2y, 5.2% of budgetTHE CLAREMONT INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF STATESMANSHIP & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY — $53,490 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetINTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE FAMILY — $50,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetCITIZENS DEFENDING FREEDOM FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetLIFE ON BELAY INC — $40,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetAUSTIN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF FAMILY AND CULTURE — $40,000 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetADF FOUNDATION — $40,000 over 2y, 5.4% of budgetAmerican College of Pediatricians — $40,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetJOHN PAUL II SHRINE AND INSTITUTE INC — $35,634 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCHARITABLE ALLIES INC — $31,525 over 2y, 6.3% of budgetNATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH — $30,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCenter for Client Safety Inc — $30,000 over 2y, 6.1% of budgetWitherspoon Institute Inc — $30,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetLIVE ACTION — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCENTER FOR ARIZONA POLICY INC — $22,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetFRONTLINE POLICY COUNCIL INC — $20,928 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetCANOPY GLOBAL FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetThe Colson Center for Christian Worldview — $20,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetOpen Doors With Brother Andrew Inc — $17,518 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBIOETHICS DEFENSE FUND — $10,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetDOWNTOWN SOUP KITCHEN INC — $9,204 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetNational Museum of American Religion Inc — $7,850 over 1y, 11% of budgetNATIONAL CENTER ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION — $6,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBOAT PEOPLE S O S INC — $5,783 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL
  • Who funds ADF ACTION
  • Who funds American Liberties Institute Inc
  • Who funds FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE DEFENSE FUND INC
  • Who funds FIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICY
  • Who funds CHILD & PARENTAL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN INC
  • Who funds The Family Foundation of Virginia
  • Who funds ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER INC
  • Who funds Susan B Anthony List Education Fund
  • Who funds PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE
  • Who funds RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE INC
  • Who funds ROADS OF SUCCESS
  • Who funds WOMENS LIBERATION FRONT
  • Who funds ASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS
  • Who funds PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY INSTITUTE
  • Who funds INDIANA FAMILY INSTITUTE INC
  • Who funds AMERICAN FREEDOM LAW CENTER INC DBA AFLC % CINDY PAGE
  • Who funds INSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS' RIGHTS INC

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Donors Trust IncVA24.2× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donors Trust Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund Inc · Christian Community Foundation Inc · The Catholic Association Foundation · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · Servant Foundation · The Family Leader Foundation Inc · USATransform · The 85 Fund · The Signatry Charitable Trust · Strake Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Alliance Defending Freedom funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 50%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    5get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 127 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph