Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC
AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,250,822 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,021,139). 20 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.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.3M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $39M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What American Oversight Inc does
Mission
American oversight advances truth, accountability, and democracy by enforcing the public's right to government records.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Legal & research: american oversight conducts research into government operations, files open records requests to obtain information from the government, and litigates to enforce those open records requests. The organization has filed more than 10,500 open records requests since 2017 and obtained more than 2,500,000 pages of public records.
$3,343,972 spent$257,045 earned by the program71% of program spendingEducation & outreach: american oversight educates the public about our investigations and findings by engaging with the news media, other organizations, and directly via our website and social media platforms. The organization maintains an extensive publicly available online library of documents obtained via our open records requests and litigation.
$1,363,222 spent29% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,707,194.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $3.5M to $6.5M (+84%).
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.
93% of AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Dominique Bravo
Board president/director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $2.8M → $5.9M.
12 of 35 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.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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 OVERSIGHT INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
78% 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 OVERSIGHT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 96% · 2018 72% · 2019 75% · 2020 50% · 2021 57% · 2022 54% · 2023 59% — 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
63% of AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.
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 OVERSIGHT INC'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 $14M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Against its field
AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 976 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 976 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $347 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $347
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC: 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.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC?
- AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,250,822 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,021,139). 20 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 OVERSIGHT INC have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $39,250,822 in grants to AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $21,021,139 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN OVERSIGHT INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds American Oversight →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 35 funders 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 October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing