California · Nonprofit
DEATH PENALTY FOCUS
DEATH PENALTY FOCUS (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $495,685 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($78,325). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $306k
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $496k
- Net assets
- $290k
What Death Penalty Focus does
Mission
Founded in 1988, Death Penalty Focus is committed to the abolition of the death penalty through public education, grassroots organizing and political advocacy,media outreach, and domestic and international coalition building.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education and social media outreachdpf delivers facts, videos, opinions and information about criminal justice and the injustice of the death penalty. Dpf promotes fact-based news, announces abolition based events, and educational opportunities for students, civil rights workers, and community organizations through a monthly newsletter, blogs, and frequent emails. We have increased our online communications, thereby extending the reach and impact of our messaging.dpf invited anti-death penalty advocates - district attorneys,innocent women who had been sentenced to death and later freed, murder victim family members, scholars, and religious leaders - to participate in a series of educational webinars offered without charge to the general public. The topics covered different perspectives on the death penalty, injustice and overall criminal justice issues.
$97,780 spent68% of program spendingMoving forward toward death penalty abolitionDeath Penalty Focus plays a leadership role in the abolition of the death penalty in california. In collaboration with the california anti-death penalty coalition, the californians for peace and justice, american civil liberities union, the catholic mobilizing network,league of women voters, the 8th amendment project, ejusa and many california faith-based organizations, dpf develops abolition policy and messaging. Dpf makes connections in the california legislature, identifies legislative leaders against the death penalty, plans forfamily members, scholars, and religious leaders - to participate in a series of educational webinars offered without charge to the general public. The topics covered different perspectives on the death penalty, injustice and overall criminal justice issues. Outreach to senate and assembly districts affected most by the death penalty.
$29,174 spent20% of program spendingAdditional projectsdpf publishes reports of exoneration, miscarriage of justice, scheduled executions, and injustice. Dpf maintains a website that provides information about the death penalty and our work toward abolition. Dpf offers prominent spokespeople to answer requests from the media and public and submits amicus briefs for relevant court cases.dpf also maintains a website (www.deathpenalty.org) that providesinformation about the death penalty and their work to end it.
$17,504 spent12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $144,458.
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 2023 to 2024, from $308k to $377k (+23%).
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.
59% of DEATH PENALTY FOCUS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $13k → $52k.
10 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 DEATH PENALTY FOCUS’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
DEATH PENALTY FOCUS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% 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
55% 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 DEATH PENALTY FOCUS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 42% · 2019 41% · 2020 32% · 2021 47% · 2022 40% · 2023 23% — 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
62% of DEATH PENALTY FOCUS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
55% of DEATH PENALTY FOCUS'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 $223k that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from funders outside California, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $273k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
DEATH PENALTY FOCUS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,798 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,798 civil rights nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like DEATH PENALTY FOCUS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 DEATH PENALTY FOCUS: 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 DEATH PENALTY FOCUS?
- DEATH PENALTY FOCUS (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $495,685 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($78,325). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DEATH PENALTY FOCUS have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $495,685 in grants to DEATH PENALTY FOCUS, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DEATH PENALTY FOCUS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $78,325 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DEATH PENALTY FOCUS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Death Penalty Focus →
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 26 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