Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS
ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,972,117 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,000,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Association of Small Foundations does
Mission
To amplify & increase the impact of lean funders in order to transform communities through informed giving. With more than 1,500 members in every corner of the us, we are a nationwide network of community connected philanthropy leaders, donors & funders with lean operations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Programs: foster learning, collaboration, and knowledge sharing to deepen member expertise and professional development. In 2025, we engaged 1824 professionals across 22 webinars, peer circles, roundtables, and cohort programs focused on catalytic leadership in philanthropy, racial equity, disability inclusion and next-generation readiness tailored for the lean funding community.
$1,875,054 spent75% of program spendingConference: exponent philanthropy's annual conference is the premier gathering for lean funders. Held annually, the conference offers a unique space for philanthropists to connect, share experiences, and learn from one another. In 2025, the conference convened almost 500 participants in columbus, oh. With over 45 sessions featuring 100+ speakers, presenters and experts, this year's agenda showcased bold ideas and strategies to advance philanthropic missions. The event features a variety of sessions, including workshops, plenaries, and site visits, covering topics such as catalytic philanthropy, equity-centered practices, and foundation management fundamentals.
$508,257 spent20% of program spendingResearch: gathers, analyzes, and shares data that helps lean funders and donors make more informed decisions. It produces practical, actionable insights through surveys, benchmarking reports, and evaluations of philanthropic practices that are designed to help foundations operate effectively, foster equity and meet compliance standards. Our signature annual report, with over 1000 downloads in 2025, the foundations operations & management report (fomr) offers key insights into the latest trends, benchmarks, and best practices shaping lean philanthropy.
$126,682 spent5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,509,993.
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 2020 to 2021, from $4.7M to $6.6M (+42%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
24% of ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Paul D Daugherty
CEO
Board chair
Nina Cohen
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 18 funders, grant income fell $395k → $273k.
6 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
65% 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 ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 50% · 2019 30% · 2020 31% · 2021 86% · 2022 63% · 2023 70% — growing more concentrated.
“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
14% of ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% 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
ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $5.0M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS: 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 ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS?
- ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,972,117 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,000,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $4,972,117 in grants to ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $2,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASSOCIATION OF SMALL FOUNDATIONS 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 Association of Small Foundations →
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 82 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