Skip to content

Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND

DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,104,458 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($919,950). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$301k
Funders on record
18
Grants received
$3.1M
Net assets
$429k
11/18 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Democracy 21 Education Fund does

Mission

Education, research, and litigation to strengthen and protect our democracy and to protect the integrity of our political system and our elections process.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Education, research, and litigation to promote democracy reforms, including campaign finance, voting rights, and redistricting reforms, and to promote protections for the rule of law and the integrity of our elections.

    $492,730 spentof which $100,000 as grants$10,200 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $492,730.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($581k) Expenses 100 ($464k) Net assets 100 ($772k)2018 Revenue 79 ($459k) Expenses 105 ($487k) Net assets 96 ($744k)2019 Revenue 82 ($475k) Expenses 112 ($518k) Net assets 91 ($700k)2020 Revenue 66 ($382k) Expenses 119 ($551k) Net assets 69 ($531k)2021 Revenue 135 ($784k) Expenses 153 ($708k) Net assets 79 ($606k)2022 Revenue 275 ($1.6M) Expenses 231 ($1.1M) Net assets 147 ($1.1M)2023 Revenue 217 ($1.3M) Expenses 351 ($1.6M) Net assets 99 ($764k)2024 Revenue 36 ($211k) Expenses 61 ($283k) Net assets 90 ($692k)2025 Revenue 52 ($301k) Expenses 121 ($563k) Net assets 56 ($429k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (52)Expenses (121)Net assets (56)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $606k to $1.1M (+87%).

$772k
$744k
$700k
$531k
$606k
$1.1M
$764k
$692k
$429k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

94% of DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (84% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 3,582 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$117k
’17
−$28k
’18
−$44k
’19
−$169k
’20
$76k
’21
$526k
’22
−$369k
’23
−$72k
’24
−$263k
’25
8.7
months of
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

Fred Wertheimer

President & CEO

Board chair

Dominic Ucci

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed141514141414131310
Joined·+1+0+0+0+1+0+0+0
No longer listed·01001103
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $429k → $513k.

8 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND’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

DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% 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

68% 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 DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND.

30%
largest funder
55%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 65% · 2019 62% · 2020 57% · 2021 35% · 2022 52% · 2023 68% — 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

50% of DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 6 states in all.

IL
NY
MA
CA
AZ
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND is better cushioned than half of the 2,065 public benefit nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−87% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve8.7mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−8% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,065 public benefit nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

87% of spending goes to programs.

Program 87%Management 13%Fundraising 0%

Governance

10
board members
80%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

51%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Democracy 21 · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND?
DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,104,458 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($919,950). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND have?
IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $3,104,458 in grants to DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $919,950 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like DEMOCRACY 21 EDUCATION FUND 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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing