Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
COMMUNICATION FIRST
COMMUNICATION FIRST (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,354,387 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($375,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Communication First does
Mission
To protect the rights and advance the interests of the estimated 5 million children and adults in the united states who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood, through public education, systemic reform of policy and practice, and legal advocacy.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Communicationfirst is the only nonprofit organization led by and dedicated to protecting the human and civil rights and advancing the interests of the estimated 5 million people in the united states who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood due to disability or other condition, regardless of cause or age of onset. Communicationfirst is a cross-disability, cross-generational, multi-racial, and multicultural disability-led civil rights organization. We promote systemic change through public engagement and education, policy and practice reform, and legal advocacy. Members of our community are regularly denied the tools and support we need to effectively communicate; wrongfully assessed and stigmatized for life; deprived of an inclusive, equally effective education; segregated and institutionalized; isolated and excluded from everyday life, including the ever-more-important digital world; subjected to inferior health care; abused and victimized; and far worse. Research and lived experience suggest that black, brown, multilingual, and other multiply marginalized individuals are both more likely to need augmentative and alternative communication (aac) at some point in…
$389,724 spent$69,920 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $389,724.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $625k to $2.1M (+232%).
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: 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of COMMUNICATION FIRST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Tauna Szymanski
Executive director & legal director
Board chair
Jordyn Zimmerman
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $2k → $370k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 COMMUNICATION FIRST’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
COMMUNICATION FIRST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
36% 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 COMMUNICATION FIRST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 61% · 2021 88% · 2022 49% · 2023 36% — 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
67% of COMMUNICATION FIRST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
COMMUNICATION FIRST draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $117k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
COMMUNICATION FIRST runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like COMMUNICATION FIRST
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
35%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 13 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMMUNICATION FIRST: 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 COMMUNICATION FIRST?
- COMMUNICATION FIRST (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,354,387 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($375,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COMMUNICATION FIRST have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,354,387 in grants to COMMUNICATION FIRST, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNICATION FIRST?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $375,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNICATION FIRST 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 Communication First →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 16 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