Minnesota · Nonprofit
DEBATE IT FORWARD
DEBATE IT FORWARD (Minnesota) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $395,333 to it, the largest being ALLISON FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($77,500). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2023
- $12k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $395k
- Net assets
- $0
What Debate It Forward does
Mission
Debate It Forward taught young people to better listen, think, and speak through debate-based games. It aimed to empower students with the tools for civil discourse and civic engagement.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Debate It Forward ran hour long virtual classes to teach debate courses that increase students' ability to think, speak, and listen. These programs met for one to two hours per week and engage students in our fun and educational programming.
$168,765 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2022 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $168,765.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Leah Shapiro
Executive director
Board chair
Adrienne Hiegel
Board president
As listed on its FY2022 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $9k → $0.
4 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 DEBATE IT FORWARD’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
DEBATE IT FORWARD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
39% 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 DEBATE IT FORWARD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 89% · 2018 65% · 2019 36% · 2020 32% · 2021 26% · 2022 30% — 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
14% of DEBATE IT FORWARD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
DEBATE IT FORWARD draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $126k 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.
Organizations like DEBATE IT FORWARD
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
98%
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 DEBATE IT FORWARD: 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 DEBATE IT FORWARD?
- DEBATE IT FORWARD (Minnesota) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $395,333 to it, the largest being ALLISON FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($77,500). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DEBATE IT FORWARD have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $395,333 in grants to DEBATE IT FORWARD, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DEBATE IT FORWARD?
- ALLISON FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $77,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DEBATE IT FORWARD find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Debate It Forward →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2023–2023), and the filings of 18 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