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Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

AmericanWitness Inc

AmericanWitness Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $872,087 to it, the largest being THE ABELL FOUNDATION INC ($650,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$793k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$872k
Net assets
$-267357
4/8 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 66%
01What it does

What AmericanWitness Inc does

Mission

American Witness is a non-partisan organization dedicatedto reimagine the tracking, documentation and understanding of violent crime cases in urban criminal justice systems to catalyze incremental system improvements.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To maintain and gather data and case information not otherwise collected on cases of violent crimes including domestic violence. To date, more than 5.3 million data points have been collected, hundreds of students provided unique professional internship opportunities, and public facing websites that provide communities with information otherwise unavailable. American Witness also develops new technologies to convert data into actionable information to improve victim outcomes.

    $690,867 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $690,867.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($89k) Expenses 100 ($89k) Net assets 100 ($589)2019 Revenue 160 ($143k) Expenses 154 ($136k) Net assets 1211 ($7k)2020 Revenue 449 ($401k) Expenses 269 ($238k) Net assets 28780 ($170k)2021 Revenue 515 ($460k) Expenses 575 ($510k) Net assets 20250 ($119k)2022 Revenue 551 ($492k) Expenses 664 ($589k) Net assets 3741 ($22k)2023 Revenue 501 ($447k) Expenses 759 ($673k) Net assets -34657 ($-204127)2024 Revenue 849 ($758k) Expenses 890 ($790k) Net assets -39949 ($-235302)2025 Revenue 888 ($793k) Expenses 930 ($825k) Net assets -45392 ($-267357)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (888)Expenses (930)Net assets (-45392)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $304k to $85k (−72%).

$931
$9k
$171k
$141k
$304k
$85k
$55k
$16k
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 11% · 2022 21% · 2023 69% · 2024 83% · 2025 50%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of AmericanWitness Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,802 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$589
’18
$7k
’19
$162k
’20
−$50k
’21
−$97k
’22
−$226k
’23
−$31k
’24
−$32k
’25
0.1
months of
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

Amos P Gelb

Chairman of the BoardPublisher

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202020212022202320242025
Listed333333
Joined·+0+0+0+0+2
No longer listed·00002
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $16k → $17k.

1 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 AmericanWitness Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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

AmericanWitness Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 75% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

75%
largest funder
90%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 86% · 2021 83% · 2022 90% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.

“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

80% of AmericanWitness Inc's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y

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

AmericanWitness Inc draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.

CA
VA
MD
DE
FL

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

’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $74k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AmericanWitness Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,661 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−4% · below the median
Months of reserve0.1mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)37% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,661 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like AmericanWitness 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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

84% of spending goes to programs.

Program 84%Management 16%Fundraising 1%

Governance

3
board members
67%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

84%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AmericanWitness 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.

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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 AmericanWitness Inc?
AmericanWitness Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $872,087 to it, the largest being THE ABELL FOUNDATION INC ($650,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AmericanWitness Inc have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $872,087 in grants to AmericanWitness Inc, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AmericanWitness Inc?
THE ABELL FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AmericanWitness 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 AmericanWitness →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 8 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing