Virginia · Nonprofit
Cause of Action Institute
Cause of Action Institute (Virginia) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $250,200 to it, the largest being EDWARDS FOUNDATION INC ($250,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $470k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $250k
- Net assets
- $63k
What Cause of Action Institute does
Mission
Cause of Action Institute (coa institute) carries out its mission through various strategic litigation, education, and training. (continued on schedule o)
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Cause of Action Institute uses research under the freedom of information act and legal administrative filings to stimulate public education and reform concerning (1) government accountability, transparency, and federal spending oversight, (2) government overreach and regulatory abuse, and (3) cronyism. The information below is a partial listing of cases coa institute litigated during the january 1, 2024 to december 31, 2024 period. Loper bright enterprises v. Department of commerce: this case challenges industry funding of at-sea monitors as beyond the agency's power under the magnuson-stevens act. Coa institute represents a group of fishingvessels adversely impacted by the challenged regulation. Coa institute also maintains a small number of federal freedom of information act cases as a first-party litigant, seeking access to information from federal agencies on issues related to section 232 tariffs and irs communications with the joint committee on taxation.
$554,218 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $554,218.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $1.0M to $393k (−62%).
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.
100% of Cause of Action Institute’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
James Valvo
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2019: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $100 → $250k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $7.0M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Seminar Network Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Cause of Action Institute raised.
From the IRS filings of Cause of Action Institute’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
Cause of Action Institute leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 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.
Where its funders are
Cause of Action Institute draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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
Cause of Action Institute's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,798 civil rights nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Cause of Action 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Cause of Action 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.
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 Cause of Action Institute?
- Cause of Action Institute (Virginia) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $250,200 to it, the largest being EDWARDS FOUNDATION INC ($250,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Cause of Action Institute have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $250,200 in grants to Cause of Action Institute, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Cause of Action Institute?
- EDWARDS FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Cause of Action Institute find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 2 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