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People for the American Way at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

People for the American Way

Mobilize members and activists to fight for public policies that reflect the values of freedom, fairness, and equal opportunity.

$127k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its 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, FY2017 to 2025.

Public Benefit$279kCivil Rights$30kArts & Culture$10k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k5 grants · $75k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
$15,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$6.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WOKE VOTE$50,000
BLACK VOTERS MATTER FUND$15,000
JOURNEY FAITH GROUP$15,000
EAST VALLEY ARIZONA NAACP$15,000
BLACK VOTERS MATTER FUND$15,000
PURE JUSTICE$15,000
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 61% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%JORDAN FOR GOV: $5k → 16%SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS: $10k → 14%PURE JUSTICE: $15k → 16%COLLECTIVE FUTURE: $5k → 14%JOURNEY FAITH GROUP: $15k → 21%WOKE VOTE: $50k → 16%BLACK VOTERS MATTER FUND: $15k → 13%MARCH ON: $20k → 7%TERRY FOR VA: $87k → 6%LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS: $20k → 14%BLACK VOTERS MATTER FUND: $15k → 13%MOVE ON CIVIC ACTION: $5k → 14%ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE ACTION FUND: $5k → 14%THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS: $5k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

ID
MI
CA
CO
VA
MD
AZ
DC
AL
GA
TX
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 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
Civica Initiatives

Empower people and strengthen democratic institutions

Community Improvement
2
Womens March Inc

Women's March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect.

—
3
Move to Amend

Move to Amend is a coalition of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to social and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and building a vibrant democracy that is genuinely accountable to the…

Civil Rights
4
America Votes

The Organization was established to coordinate and promote progressive issues, policies, initiatives, and referenda, and to pursue electoral reform that expands access to the ballot.

Community Improvement
5
Virginia Coalition for Progressive Values

To establish an effective, long-term and resilient political infrastructure that advocates for and delivers public policy victories which reflect the values held in common by our members.

—
6
Elevated Voices Inc

Voter education around policy

—
7
Black Phoenix Organizing Collective

We prioritize the needs of Black people through two programs: Disability Justice and Reproductive Justice. We believe that supporting mental healthcare, holding and creating space for vulnerability is a piece of how we free ourselves as…

Food & Nutrition
8
Generator Collective

Generator Collective's mission is to humanize policy through storytelling by helping organize the noise of these policies and overall lower the political barrier of entry.

—
9
Upstate Action Alliance

Non-PartisanVoter Educ Advocacy

Civil Rights
10
Minnesota Voice

Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.

Public Benefit
11
New Pennsylvania Project

The New Pennsylvania Project (NPP) is a voting rights organization with a

Civil Rights
12
Democracy Unlimited

Democracy Unlimited uplifts people to build a world where our systems of power prioritize the well-being of humans and the living world. We reclaim authority that has been unjustly seized by governments and corporations - all with the aim…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pure Justice. 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

15 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. 15 of the 17 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/15
Grantees still filing
7/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TERRY FOR VIRGINIA: $87,225 · OtherTERRY FOR VIRGINIAWoke Vote: $50,000 · OtherWoke VoteBlack Voters Matter Fund Inc: $30,000 · OtherBlack Voters Matter Fund IncLEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES: $20,000 · OtherLEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATESDRUM MAJORS FOR CHANGE INC: $20,000 · OtherDRUM MAJORS FOR CHANGE INCMARCH ON: $20,000 · OtherMARCH ONJOURNEY FAITH GROUP INC: $15,000 · OtherJOURNEY FAITH GROUP INCNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE: $15,000 · OtherNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE+4 more: $21,000 · Other+4 morePure Justice: $15,000 · Community ImprovementOur Revolution: $6,000 · Civil RightsALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE ACTION CAMPAIGN: $5,000 · Civil RightsSOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC: $9,500 · EnvironmentMoveOnorg Civic Action: $5,000 · Education
Other$278,225Community Improvement$15,000Civil Rights$11,000Environment$9,500Education$5,000

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 budgetWoke Vote: $50,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetLEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES: $20,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetDRUM MAJORS FOR CHANGE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 6.8% of budgetMARCH ON: $20,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC: $9,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOur Revolution: $6,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE ACTION CAMPAIGN: $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetTHE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMoveOnorg Civic Action: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Sixteen Thirty FundEnd Citizens United L…Communications Worker…Tides AdvocacyTides Foundation
Sixteen Thirty FundDC21.3× affinity8 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sixteen Thirty Fund · End Citizens United Let America Vote Action Fund · Communications Workers of America Afl-Cio Clc · Tides Advocacy · Tides Foundation

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 People for the American Way funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from People for the American Way. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%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 · 0–75%
    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 17 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on People for the American Way’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