· Public charity
Consumer Federation of America
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is an association of non-profit consumer organizations that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Alaska Public Interest Research Group | $38,000 |
| New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +102% since the first grant, against -6% for those funded once.
6 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $48k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MCMARYLAND CONSUMER RIGHTS COALITION INC5× · 2017–2021 · $100k · revenue +118%
Center for Responsible Lending2× · 2022–2023 · $25k · revenue +102%- TATexas Appleseed2× · 2019–2021 · $20k · revenue +304%
Funded once
- EIESSENTIAL INFORMATION INCone grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue -6%
- WNWestern New York Law Center Incgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +85%
- FCFLORIDA CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue -96%
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.
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.
Consumers' Defense is a 501c4 nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the knowledge and understanding of issues, policies, products, and services of concern to consumers and to promote the freedom to act on that knowledge and…
Work with DC courts, private bar & legal services providers to increase legal representations for low & moderate income DC residents, enhance efficiency of legal services, and reduce barriers to the judicial system.
Fund for Justice is a nationally connected social impact research and advocacy organization that works to achieve fundamental, systemic reform by addressing policies and practicies that prevent individuals from reaching their full…
CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER (CLDC) educates the general public about their rights and privileges under the US Constitution and provides free legal support to climate and social justice activists.
We encourage Connecticut residents to participate in government and their communities and we conduct public interest lobbying to advocate for consumer and environmental concerns.
We are workers, united across different industries to improve our working conditions and our lives. We come together as working people to build power through education, organizing, and enforcement. We work to raise and uphold standards in…
Worker Justice Center of New York, Inc. (WJCNY) pusues juistice for those denied hian rights, with a focus on agricultural and other low-wage workers, through legal representation, community empowerment and advocacy for institutional…
To help tenants stand up for their legal rights.
The Equal Justice Center is a non-profit law firm and employment justice organization which empowers low-income families, workers, and communities to achieve fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in our shared society…
The Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a statewide organization whose mission is to protect, preserve and restore Washington's waters through education, advocacy, policy reform, and public interest litigation.
CEIR seeks to restore trust in the American election system and promote election procedures that encourage participation while ensuring election integrity and security.
The legal aid justice center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 13 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds MARYLAND CONSUMER RIGHTS COALITION INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds Alaska Public Interest Research Group ↗
- Who funds ESSENTIAL INFORMATION INC ↗
- Who funds Center for Responsible Lending ↗
- Who funds Texas Appleseed ↗
- Who funds VETERANS EDUCATION SUCCESS INC ↗
- Who funds Western New York Law Center Inc ↗
- Who funds FLORIDA CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NEW JERSEY CITIZEN ACTION EDUCATION FUND INC ↗
- Who funds WISPIRG FOUNDATION INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund · Center for Responsible Lending · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Consumer Federation of America funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Consumer Federation of America. Bigger dots raise more.
- New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund Inc: 9% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Consumer Federation of America’s filings →