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We The People Action Fund at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

We The People Action Fund

To promote racial and economic justice throughout Michigan by training and organizing community leaders across the state; Engaging community members in the development of thoughtful public policy solutions through nonpartisan educational means; Engaging in voter education.

$238k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$475k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Public Benefit$603kPhilanthropy$538kCivil Rights$338kHealth$250kEnvironment$200kArts & Culture$50kEducation$38kHuman Services$16k
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $26k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $625k
  • $250k+2 grants · $725k
$200,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$4.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Sixteen Thirty Fund$475,000
Intatai Foundation$250,000
Tides Advocacy$225,000
WDN Action$200,000
Climate Equity Action Fund$200,000
Airlift$16,000
Allied Media Projects$10,000
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 (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 85% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Tides Advocacy: $225k → 10%Sixteen Thirty Fund: $475k → 14%Airlift: $16k → 9%Mothering Justice: $38k → 21%Intatai Foundation: $250k → 9%Tides Foundation: $63k → 10%Allied Media Projects: $10k → 21%TIDES ADVOCACY: $60k → 10%We The People Michigan PAC: $200k → 21%Tides Advocacy: $25k → 10%WE THE PEOPLE MICHIGAN PAC: $55k → 21%Empowered Politics: $38k → 10%ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS: $40k → 21%482 Forward: $38k → 21%Michigan Liberation: $100k → 21%Climate Equity Action Fund: $200k → 21%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.

41%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$615k · 3 repeat orgs$879k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
4

Total granted

$615k
$213k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+18%
+73%

Still filing today

67%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 26% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $666k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsArts & CultureHealthEnvironmentEducationOther
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

  • TA
    TIDES ADVOCACY
    3× · 2021–2024 · $310k · revenue +18%
  • WT
    We The People Michigan PAC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $255k
  • ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC
    2× · 2021–2024 · $50k · revenue -50%

Funded once

  • AF
    ACTION FOR LIBERATION
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue +3%
  • CF
    CENTER FOR EMPOWERED POLITICS EDUCATION FUNDgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $38k · revenue +73%
  • 4F
    482 FORWARDgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $38k · revenue +65%
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
The Alliance for Media Arts Culture Inc

To facilitate collaboration, innovation, strategic growth and cultural impact for the media arts field. We are a network of networks; we embolden creative media organization and artists and connect them with the world.

Arts & Culture
2
Tides Network

The tides entities work in partnership with community leaders, nonprofits, donors, foundations, and corporations to provide fiscal sponsorship, donor advised funds, grantmaking, and other philanthropic services.

Philanthropy
3
Women Donors Network

Women donors network advances a just, equitable, and sustainable world through the power of philanthropy, women's leadership, and collective and individual action.

Philanthropy
4
Upturn Inc

Upturn advances equity and justice in the design, governance, and use of technology.

—
5
Common Future

Common future is a network of pioneering leaders across the u.s. and canada who work deeply within their communities to create alternative approaches to business, philanthropy, and investing. we envision an economy that has transitioned…

Community Improvement
6
Wepower

We activate community power to redesign social systems to be just and equitable for all through (1) developing and supporting leaders and organizations and (2) leading campaigns, coalitions, and innovative initiatives.

Community Improvement
7
Clean Fuels Michigan

To accelerate the transition to clean transportation in michigan. we advocate for the suite of alternative fuels including biofuels, hydrogen, propane, natural gas, and electric vehicles.

Community Improvement
8
Alliance for Justice

Alliance for justice builds the strength of progressive movements by training and educating nonprofit organizations on advocacy, while harnessing their collective power to transform our state and federal courts.

Civil Rights
9
Transform Finance Inc

To align capital with social justice values, and help activists and community leaders access capital as a tool for transformative social change. we empower community leaders to shape how capital flows affect them - both in terms of holding…

Community Improvement
10
Democracy Forward

See schedule o.this organization seeks to build collective power to defend and advance a vibrant democracy that benefits all people.

—
11
Center for Popular Democracy Inc

The center for popular democracy (cpd) and its affiliates know that everyday people have the power to change the world. we upend business and politics as usual to forge a representative, multiracial government and society where we all…

Public Benefit
12
Womens Funding Network

Our mission as a global alliance is to provide strategies, research, and resources that support the critical agency and influence of women's foundations and gender justice funders in the movement for equality, justice, and power for all.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Tides Advocacy; the most unlike its peers is 482 Forward. 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

10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2024.

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 2024, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 12 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)
10/10
Grantees still filing
6/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TIDES ADVOCACY: $310,000 · OtherTIDES ADVOCACYWe The People Michigan PAC: $255,000 · OtherWe The People Michigan PACWOMEN DONORS NETWORK ACTION: $200,000 · OtherWOMEN DONORS NETWORK ACTION+1 more: $16,000 · OtherTIDES FOUNDATION: $537,500 · PhilanthropyTIDES FOUNDATIONINATAI FOUNDATION: $250,000 · HealthINATAI FOUNDA…CLIMATE EQUITY ACTION FUND: $200,000 · EnvironmentCLIMATE EQU…ACTION FOR LIBERATION: $100,000 · Civil RightsACTION FO…CENTER FOR EMPOWERED POLITICS EDUCATION FUND: $37,500 · Civil RightsCENTER FO…MOTHERING JUSTICE: $37,500 · Civil RightsMOTHERING…ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC: $50,000 · Arts & Culture482 FORWARD: $37,500 · Education
Other$781,000Philanthropy$537,500Health$250,000Environment$200,000Civil Rights$175,000Arts & Culture$50,000Education$37,500

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTIDES FOUNDATION: $537,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTIDES ADVOCACY: $310,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetINATAI FOUNDATION: $250,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCLIMATE EQUITY ACTION FUND: $200,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetWOMEN DONORS NETWORK ACTION: $200,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetACTION FOR LIBERATION: $100,000 over 1y, 6.5% of budgetALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCENTER FOR EMPOWERED POLITICS EDUCATION FUND: $37,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budget482 FORWARD: $37,500 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMOTHERING JUSTICE: $37,500 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Tides Advocacy
Tides AdvocacyCA13.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Tides Advocacy

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 We The People Action Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from We The People Action Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%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
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–24
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to We The People Action Fund?

    Find your warmest path to We The People Action Fund through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    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 12 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on We The People Action’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