Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
BUSINESS FORWARD INC
BUSINESS FORWARD INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,959,000 to it, the largest being The Partnership Project Action Fund ($646,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Business Forward Inc does
Mission
Business forward builds support for policies that promote america's economic competitiveness. Together with many of the world's largest companies, we recruit, brief and assist fortune 1000 executives, small business owners, investors and entrepreneurs looking for a meaningful way to participate in policy debates.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The organization communicates with the business community and itsmembers on issues important to the organization.
The organization sponsors briefings, panels and otherevents throughout the country focusing on health care, cleanenergy, education, environmental reforms and other public policyareas.
The organization conducts press briefings and outreach to gainpositive and effective dissemination of the organization'sactivities, to encourage participation, and to promote theorganization's content.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense.
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 $636k to $2.4M (+278%).
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 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of BUSINESS FORWARD INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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
Elizabeth Fairchild
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $45k → $75k.
1 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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: $470k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Business Forward Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money BUSINESS FORWARD INC raised.
From the IRS filings of BUSINESS FORWARD 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
BUSINESS FORWARD INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 BUSINESS FORWARD INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 95% · 2020 67% · 2021 41% · 2023 67% — 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
0% of BUSINESS FORWARD INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 14% 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
72% of BUSINESS FORWARD INC's grant income comes from Washington, D.C. funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8k 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.
Against its field
BUSINESS FORWARD INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like BUSINESS FORWARD 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.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Business Forward Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BUSINESS FORWARD 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 BUSINESS FORWARD INC?
- BUSINESS FORWARD INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,959,000 to it, the largest being The Partnership Project Action Fund ($646,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BUSINESS FORWARD INC have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,959,000 in grants to BUSINESS FORWARD INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BUSINESS FORWARD INC?
- The Partnership Project Action Fund is the largest funder on record, with $646,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BUSINESS FORWARD 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 Business Forward →
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 14 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