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Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 225 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,416,604 to it, the largest being WINLEY FOUNDATION ($4,051,250). 120 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$6.2M
Funders on record
225
Grants received
$11M
Net assets
$27M
120/225 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 32%
01What it does

What Animal Welfare Institute does

Mission

Since 1951, the Animal Welfare Institute has been dedicated to alleviating animal suffering caused by people. We seek to improve the welfare of animals everywhere: in agriculture, in commerce, in our homes and communities, in research, and in the wild.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Awi programs advance its mission through strategically crafted policy and legal advocacy, educational programs, research and analysis, and engagement with policymakers, scientists, industry, educators, other ngos, the media, and the public. We seek scientifically grounded protections for animals in all settings, and robust enforcement of those protections.

    $6,891,881 spentof which $1,401,530 as grants$10,954 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,891,881.

02The 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 ($4.4M) Expenses 100 ($2.7M) Net assets 100 ($13M)2018 Revenue 112 ($4.9M) Expenses 131 ($3.6M) Net assets 111 ($15M)2019 Revenue 120 ($5.3M) Expenses 149 ($4.1M) Net assets 120 ($16M)2020 Revenue 110 ($4.8M) Expenses 152 ($4.2M) Net assets 127 ($17M)2021 Revenue 121 ($5.3M) Expenses 155 ($4.2M) Net assets 146 ($20M)2022 Revenue 168 ($7.4M) Expenses 179 ($4.9M) Net assets 146 ($20M)2023 Revenue 258 ($11M) Expenses 224 ($6.1M) Net assets 192 ($26M)2024 Revenue 181 ($8.0M) Expenses 264 ($7.2M) Net assets 206 ($28M)2025 Revenue 140 ($6.2M) Expenses 277 ($7.6M) Net assets 200 ($27M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (140)Expenses (277)Net assets (200)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 $20M to $26M (+33%).

$13M
$15M
$16M
$17M
$20M
$20M
$26M
$28M
$27M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

81% of ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (74% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,665 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.7M
’17
$1.4M
’18
$1.2M
’19
$688k
’20
$1.1M
’21
$2.5M
’22
$5.2M
’23
$756k
’24
−$1.4M
’25
2.3
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.

Chief executive

Susan Millward

Executive director/CEO

Board chair

Cathy Liss

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed887999121515
Joined·+2+0+2+0+0+5+4+2
No longer listed·21000212
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 47 funders to 90 funders, grant income rose $680k → $1.7M.

30 of 225 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 225 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

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% 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

39% 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 ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE.

35%
largest funder
56%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 57% · 2019 51% · 2020 38% · 2021 26% · 2022 26% · 2023 32% — 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

44% of ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE'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

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 36 states in all.

NH
WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
VA
MD
DE
NM
TN
NC
SC
DC
LA
GA
TX
FL

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE's funding base is broadening — from 47 funders to 90 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−23% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 813 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE

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

91% of spending goes to programs.

Program 91%Management 8%Fundraising 1%

Governance

7
board members
86%
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.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 30 states

NH
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
RI
CA
UT
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
MS
AL
GA
FL

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Holly Frederick Reynolds Support Foundation for Animal Welfare · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE: 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 ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE?
ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 225 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,416,604 to it, the largest being WINLEY FOUNDATION ($4,051,250). 120 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE have?
IRS filings report 225 organizations giving $11,416,604 in grants to ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE, 120 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE?
WINLEY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,051,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE 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.

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 225 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