Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Council on Foundations Inc
Council on Foundations Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 279 organizations whose IRS filings report $41,145,061 to it, the largest being CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION ($4,560,000). 176 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Council on Foundations Inc's funding base is broadening — from 90 funders to 131 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 828 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared funders
- Consumer Brands Associationportfolio match
- Living Cities Inc the National Community Development Initiativeportfolio match
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.
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 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of Council on Foundations Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 90 funders to 131 funders, grant income rose $3.1M → $5.1M.
70 of 279 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 Council on Foundations Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 279 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
Council on Foundations Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 16% · 2018 13% · 2019 20% · 2020 12% · 2021 16% · 2022 9% · 2023 14% — 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.
How long its funders stay
54% of Council on Foundations Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
Council on Foundations Inc draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 35 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 29 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 279 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 100 organizations that share your funders
- Consumer Brands Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Living Cities Inc the National Community Development Initiativeportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Trevelyan Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Edison Electric Institute Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- United Philanthropy Forumportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forumportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountantsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Gas Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Hotel & Lodging Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Advanced Technology Allianceportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Laura and John Arnold Foundationshared fundersTX · backs 109 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Council on Foundations Inc
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 21 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Community Foundations National Standards Board · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Council on Foundations 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Council on Foundations Inc?
- Council on Foundations Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 279 organizations whose IRS filings report $41,145,061 to it, the largest being CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION ($4,560,000). 176 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Council on Foundations Inc have?
- IRS filings report 279 organizations giving $41,145,061 in grants to Council on Foundations Inc, 176 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Council on Foundations Inc?
- CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,560,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Council on Foundations 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.
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 279funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing