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Center for a Free Economy Inc at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Center for a Free Economy Inc

To educate the public and policymakers about tax policy, health care policy, trade policy, and other issues related to economic policy

$341k
Granted FY2023
4
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$175k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2023.

Public Benefit$506kPhilanthropy$175kCivil Rights$70k
02FY2023 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $290k
$115,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DONORS TRUST$175,000
NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION$115,000
INDEPENDENT WOMENS VOICE$25,000
AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM$25,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 67% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: $50k → 14%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $35k → 19%DONORS TRUST: $175k → 9%INDEPENDENT WOMENS VOICE: $25k → 16%AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: $25k → 14%60 PLUS ASSOCIATION: $70k → 9%INDEPENDENT WOMENS VOICE: $5k → 16%AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: $25k → 14%COALITIONS FOR AMERICA: $1k → 9%AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: $25k → 14%AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: $25k → 14%NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $115k → 14%NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $95k → 14%NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $25k → 14%NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $25k → 14%CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: $15k → 14%CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: $15k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$470k · 5 repeat orgs$281k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2023, 2 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
3

Total granted

$470k
$106k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-27%
+48%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 49% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $175k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23
Civil RightsPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • NT
    NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION FOUNDATION
    2× · 2022–2023 · $210k · revenue +24%
  • AF
    Americans for Tax Reform
    5× · 2019–2023 · $150k · revenue -69%
  • NT
    NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION
    2× · 2019–2020 · $50k · revenue -27%

Funded once

  • T6
    THE 60 PLUS ASSOCIATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $70k · revenue +483%
  • TJ
    THE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $35k · revenue +48%
  • CF
    COALITIONS FOR AMERICA
    one grant, 2022 · $1k · revenue +18%
How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Council for National Policy

To provide information about public policy and national policy alternatives to leaders in business, government, religion, and academia.

Public Benefit
2
California Taxpayers Association

CalTaxs mission is to serve the general public and our members including Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and individuals by promoting sound tax policy and government efficiency at the state and local levels of government through…

—
3
The American Assembly

A national non partisan public policy forum to illuminate issues of public policy.

—
4
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Conduct nonpartisan public education programs, lobbying activities, attempt to influence legislation and programs involving government waste.

Public Benefit
5
Florida Taxwatch Research Institute Inc

To provide citizens with independent research on government fiscal policy and to promote the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars

—
6
America's Newspapers

Providing research, education and practical information all aimed at optimizing newspapers' business operations, deepening their community engagement and enhancing the quality of their journalism.

Employment
7
Institute for Public Accuracy

To teach and disseminate educational materials to the public.

Arts & Culture
8
Taxpayers for Common Sense

The mission of taxpayers for common sense (tcs) is to achieve a government that spends taxpayer dollars responsibly and operates within its means. we work with the public, policymakers, and the media to increase transparency of the federal…

Public Benefit
9
Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois

Research and recommendations on tax and spending issues

Community Improvement
10
American Policy Coalition

With a commitment to free market principles, APC focuses on educating the public about conservative fiscal policies that foster job growth, a stronger economy, and increased opportunity for all Americans.

Public Benefit
11
The National Foundation for American Policy Inc

The national foundation for american policy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to public policy research on trade, immigration, and other issues of national importance. the organization seeks to expand the debate over the…

Public Benefit
12
People's Independent Commission

Supports Measure to Remove Lawmakers Power to Set Their Own Pay

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is National Taxpayers Union; the most unlike its peers is Candid. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

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

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
4/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION FOUNDATION: $210,000 · OtherNATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION FOUNDATIONAmericans for Tax Reform: $150,000 · OtherAmericans for Tax ReformTHE 60 PLUS ASSOCIATION INC: $70,000 · OtherTHE 60 PLUS ASSOCIATION INCNATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $50,000 · OtherNATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNIONTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC: $35,000 · OtherTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INCCITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: $30,000 · OtherCITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE+1 more: $1,000 · OtherCANDID: $175,000 · PhilanthropyCANDIDIndependent Women's Voice: $30,000 · Civil Rights
Other$546,000Philanthropy$175,000Civil Rights$30,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION FOUNDATION: $210,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetCANDID: $175,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetAmericans for Tax Reform: $150,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetTHE 60 PLUS ASSOCIATION INC: $70,000 over 1y, 7.0% of budgetNATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: $50,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC: $35,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetCITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: $30,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetIndependent Women's Voice: $30,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetCOALITIONS FOR AMERICA: $1,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

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

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Pharmaceutical Resear…MywirelessorgNcta - the Internet &…The Concord Fund
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of AmericaDC15.5× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America · Mywirelessorg · Ncta - the Internet & Television Association · The Concord Fund

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Center for a Free Economy Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Center for a Free Economy Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 9 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Center for a Free Economy’s filings →

    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