Oregon · Nonprofit
Civics Learning Project
Civics Learning Project (Oregon) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,594,116 to it, the largest being M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($348,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $1.0M
What Civics Learning Project does
Mission
Civics Learning Project is an oregon nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to promote civics education and equip students with the knowledge, essential skills, and motivation to become active participants in their communities and in our democratic society, principally through work with teachers and schools throughout the state of oregon.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Student education programs includes the we the people program in which students test their knowledge of constitutional issues in a congressional hearing type session, as well as mock trial which challenges students to assume roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictional trial. Both of these programs include competitions for high school students at regional, state, and national levels which bring together more than 1,800 students from across oregon, as well as versions that teachers can directly integrate into their classroom curriculum. Other experiential education programs include community action projects, a curriculum for grades 5-12 in which students identify a public policy issue and develop an action plan to address it; courthouse experience tours where thousands of students each year learn about the justice system and watch the law come alive through real cases during a guided tour of county courts throughout the state; and the law day conference which provides workshops on a variety of legal, social, and political issues concerning youth and taught by scholars, activists and other experts. In addition, for more than 30 years, the organizations staff members have provided…
$261,754 spent$30,721 earned by the program40% of program spendingOutreach & communications critical to sustaining and expanding the organizations impact are proactive outreach and communications to increase awareness of and engagement with its programs among teachers across oregon, as well as collaboration with other civics and social studies education entities to continuously develop and evolve those programs to ensure relevancy. Communications elements include a monthly newsletter and consistent schedule of social media posts to convey information about programs and upcoming events, as well as maintenance of a database of several thousand email contacts. Three regional program managers have been added to-date, in eugene, medford, and bend, as part of the oregon civics reach initiative. Their focus is on developing relationships with local educators and community partners, delivering the full range of the organization's programs and reaching schools in an approximately two-hour radius, including local courthouse experience tours, expanding the high school mock trial and we the people competitions statewide, increasing participation by all grades in classroom versions of our experiential civics programs, and providing teachers with support…
$223,974 spent34% of program spendingTeacher support includes the oregon civics conference for teachers, held at the state capitol building in salem, drawing educators from around the state of oregon and providing them an opportunity to interact with representatives from all three branches of government along with workshops on a range of civics and law-related topics, as well as the summer institute which provides a multi-day experience featuring content, strategies, and grade-level breakouts with local and national experts in civic education, government, and social studies. Current events provides a weekly online resource of information and supporting materials for teachers to use in their classrooms, with connections to the constitution, state academic content standards and we the people curriculum. In addition, a range of professional development workshops is offered at various locations, as well as virtually, throughout the year, and staff members serve as guest lecturers in social studies teaching methods courses in master of arts in teaching (mat) degree programs at university schools of education across the state. The organization also provides private consultations through which teachers can consult with…
$167,884 spent26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $653,612.
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 2021 to 2022, from $923k to $1.4M (+51%).
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 9% · 2022 11% · 2023 10% · 2024 13% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
103% of Civics Learning Project’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Darin Sands
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $96k → $432k.
10 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 Civics Learning Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
Civics Learning Project has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
31% 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 Civics Learning Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 46% · 2019 24% · 2020 24% · 2021 14% · 2022 17% · 2023 25% — 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
52% of Civics Learning Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 85% 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
60% of Civics Learning Project's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $539k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Civics Learning Project runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 852 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Civics Learning Project receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $63k on record.
- PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT>$75K$63k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Civics Learning Project
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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
53% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Civics Learning Project: 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 Civics Learning Project?
- Civics Learning Project (Oregon) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,594,116 to it, the largest being M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST ($348,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Civics Learning Project have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $2,594,116 in grants to Civics Learning Project, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Civics Learning Project?
- M J MURDOCK CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $348,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Civics Learning Project find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Civics Learning Project →
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 41 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