Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,386,701 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($7,983,550). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 123
- Grants received
- $35M
- Net assets
- $9.6M
What Competitive Enterprise Institute does
Mission
Competitive Enterprise Institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being allowed to make their own choices in a free marketplace.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Communications and outreachcei's communications and outreach department assists the cei policy centers with their efforts to disseminate research findings and analysis to various audiences including policymakers, news media, allied organizations, and the general public. It also helps the policy centers build coalitions of like minded scholars, activists, and other stakeholders to advance the organization's mission of promoting the institutions of liberty and removing government-created barriers to economic freedom, innovation, and prosperity.
$1,735,680 spent24% of program spendingCenter for energy and environment cei's center for energy and environment makes the positive case for abundant energy and promotes environmental policies based on economic freedom, property rights, and limited government. The center works to combat the belief that prosperity threatens the environment, that the answer to every environmental challenge is more regulation, and that risks can be abolished by limiting human ingenuity.
$1,103,402 spent15% of program spendingCenter for economic freedomcei's center for economic freedom addresses many of the industries and activities where long-established, and often paternalistic, regulatory policies tend to stymie the creation and evolution of new products and services, technologies, business practices, and work arrangements. Key issue areas include banking and securities regulation, consumer finance, labor law and employment policy, consumer product regulation, and trade policy. These issue areas require our experts to have a firm understanding of existing regulation, regulation's monetary and social costs, and an appreciation of the way technology and innovation present new challenges and prospects for reform.
$979,795 spent14% of program spendingCenter for technology and innovation - cei's center for technology and innovation strives to keep the regulatory state from encroaching upon frontier industries and ensure that 21st century technologies are not shackled by 20th century regulations. The center works to advance market discipline as superior to regulatory intervention; we legitimize market processes and forestall governmental restrictions on wealth creation.
$739,145 spent10% of program spendingCenter for litigation - the central mission of cei's center for law & litigation is to encourage government bodies to comply with the law that governs them. Cei does this through representation of parties in public interest litigation, submission of amicus briefs, policy analysis and advocacy, government records requests, and research support extended to cei's policy colleagues. Issues that the center has focused on in the recent past include corporate average fuel economy standards, consumer appliance energy efficiency standards, the universal service fee, mutual funds fees, and civil forfeiture reform.
$707,268 spent10% of program spendingOther programs
$1,873,738 spentof which $3,100 as grants26% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,139,028.
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.
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 $9.4M to $15M (+63%).
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.
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
Richard Tren
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 44 funders to 55 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $7.7M.
14 of 123 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 123 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
COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
60% 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 COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 13% · 2018 17% · 2019 13% · 2020 13% · 2021 22% · 2022 27% · 2023 35% — 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
62% of COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
56% of COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $16M that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 26 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Organizations like COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% 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 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE 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 COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE?
- COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,386,701 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($7,983,550). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 123 organizations giving $35,386,701 in grants to COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, 92 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE?
- Donors Trust Inc is the largest funder on record, with $7,983,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 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.
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 123 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