Skip to content
Plinth
Funding

Virginia · Nonprofit

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia (Virginia) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,422,865 to it, the largest being THE SUSAN THOMPSON BUFFETT FOUNDATION ($352,401). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$6.9M
Revenue FY2025
32
Funders on record
$1.4M
Grants received
$12M
Net assets
17/32 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 8%

Against its field

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 363 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin52% · top quartile
Months of reserve4.7mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)26% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($903k) Net assets 100 ($5.8M)2018 Revenue 150 ($1.6M) Expenses 113 ($1.0M) Net assets 111 ($6.4M)2019 Revenue 184 ($2.0M) Expenses 135 ($1.2M) Net assets 125 ($7.2M)2020 Revenue 181 ($2.0M) Expenses 172 ($1.6M) Net assets 122 ($7.1M)2021 Revenue 249 ($2.7M) Expenses 184 ($1.7M) Net assets 173 ($10M)2022 Revenue 214 ($2.3M) Expenses 230 ($2.1M) Net assets 185 ($11M)2023 Revenue 145 ($1.6M) Expenses 300 ($2.7M) Net assets 151 ($8.8M)2024 Revenue 129 ($1.4M) Expenses 344 ($3.1M) Net assets 140 ($8.2M)2025 Revenue 630 ($6.9M) Expenses 365 ($3.3M) Net assets 202 ($12M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (630)Expenses (365)Net assets (202)Peer revenue range

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

90% of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,013 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$189k
17
$618k
18
$786k
19
$426k
20
$1.0M
21
$258k
22
$1.1M
23
$1.7M
24
$3.6M
25
4.7
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $54k → $123k.

12 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)63% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $3.6M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia raised.

From the IRS filings of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

67% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia.

25%
largest funder
62%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 48% · 2019 37% · 2020 33% · 2021 61% · 2022 28% · 2023 35%diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

40% of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

63% of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $529k that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 10 states.

VT
IL
NY
PA
NJ
NE
VA
DE
DC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Virginia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $894k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 32 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Virginia

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

75% of spending goes to programs.

Program 75%Management 25%Fundraising 0%

Governance

8
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

91%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • ACLU of Virginia · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia?
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia (Virginia) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,422,865 to it, the largest being THE SUSAN THOMPSON BUFFETT FOUNDATION ($352,401). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia have?
IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $1,422,865 in grants to American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia?
THE SUSAN THOMPSON BUFFETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $352,401 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 32funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing