Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $91,859,597 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($31,044,010). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $66M
- Funders on record
- 132
- Grants received
- $92M
- Net assets
- $50M
What Democracy Forward Foundation does
Mission
To protect the rights and institutions that make our nation's democracy strong by working through the legal system and administrative processes to preserve the rule of law and hold government accountable, and to educate the public about those efforts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
To protect the rights and institutions that make our nation's democracy strong by working through the legal system and administrative processes to preserve the rule of law and hold government accountable, and to educate the public about those efforts.
$26,350,583 spentof which $50,000 as grants$67,349 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $26,350,583.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $15M to $61M (+318%).
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.
100% of DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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.
Chief executive
Skye L Perryman
President and CEO
Board chair
Marc E Elias
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $5.3M → $14M.
40 of 132 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.0M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Center for American Progress). These are real filings, and they are not money DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 132 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
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
76% 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 FORWARD FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 57% · 2019 52% · 2020 53% · 2021 52% · 2022 41% · 2023 33% — 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
75% of DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 15% 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
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $46M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 165 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 165 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 29 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Democracy Forward · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION: 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 DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION?
- DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $91,859,597 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($31,044,010). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 132 organizations giving $91,859,597 in grants to DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $31,044,010 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 132 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