Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL
DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,776,980 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($20,000,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $67M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $63M
- Net assets
- $43M
What Digital Promise Global does
Mission
Digital promise is a global nonprofit working to expand opportunity for each learner. We work with educators, researchers, technology leaders, and communities to design, investigate, and scale up innovations that empower learners, especially those who've been historically and systematically excluded. Our mission is to shape the future of learning and advance equitable education systems by bringing together solutions across research, practice, and technology.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Digital equity: the digital equity team works to advance powerful learning in schools and districts across the u.s. By advocating against and solving for inequities in broadband access and the inequitable distribution and use of powerful technology in schools, and by creating initiatives, establishing partnerships, and influencing policy at the state and federal levels that address the digital learning gap at scale. Its flagship program is verizon innovative learning schools (vils). In 2024, vils launched its 11th cohort of schools, expanding the program to an additional 34 middle and high schools in 13 districts nationwide with collectively more than 22,000 students bringing the total reach of the vils program to more than 660,000 students in 115 districts.
$31,896,630 spentof which $18,818,638 as grants$395,833 earned by the program52% of program spendingGlobal networks: through digital promise's networks, we surface and spread insights and innovations among education participants. The league of innovative schools connects forward-thinking leaders across more than 150 districts in 34 states and has cumulatively served more than 4.4 million students since its founding. In 2024, digital promise co-hosted two convenings for league members one in new york, ny alongside mineola public schools and one in lindsay, california alongside lindsay unified school district. In 2024, digital promise continued to expand its global work. The global cities education network is a network of international city education systems designed to collaboratively identify, examine, and adapt internationally benchmarked solutions to common problems of practice. In 2024, gcen members convened in helsinki, finland, for its annual symposium to discuss and share promising solutions to education challenges with global applications.
$16,569,192 spentof which $163,849 as grants$1,994,895 earned by the program27% of program spendingPowerful learning: powerful learning is rooted in principles that empower both educators and learners, emphasizing collaboration, agency and the use of innovative tools and strategies to create impactful educational experiences. In 2024, the hp teaching fellows continued to advance powerful learning through regional and national conference presentations, leading discussions that enriched the learning community with insights and professional experiences. Through the ciena solutions challenge, digital promise and ciena awarded 20 project teams $2,500 to sustain and scale student-led projects. Students also shared their work with a global audience at the 2024 youthmade festival, digital promise's global celebration of youth creativity and innovation. The learner variability project (lvp) leverages emerging research to uncover strategies that meet the diverse needs of learners. In 2024, the lvp updated its learner variability navigator to with strategies aimed to be inclusive of students with learning differences. The pathways and credentials team advanced access to opportunity, rooted in the belief that pathways should open doors for all learners, by releasing influential research on…
$7,291,717 spentof which $645,104 as grants$1,912,693 earned by the program12% of program spendingCenter for inclusive innovation: digital promise's center for inclusive innovation (cii) partners with districts and communities to co-create lasting education solutions that enable every student to learn and thrive. In 2024, cii secured major funding from the gates foundation for the "school conditions bright spots: community of practice" project to explore how districts use school conditions measures to improve student success. Cii also secured a nist ramps (u.s. Department of commerce) award and walton family foundation funding to expand the cybersecurity pathways initiative work in alabama, supporting the launch of the east alabama regional cyber alliance (earca) and developing a state-level blueprint for career pathways. Additionally, cii launched chronic absenteeism: insights and innovations, a program engaging 16 districts in community-informed action. Cii also continued its long-standing role as a critical research and evaluation partner for a suite of verizon's education initiatives including verizon innovative learning schools (vils), learning labs, and stem achievers, as well as the illinois education association's new educator coaching and mentoring program, using…
$5,412,493 spentof which $977,058 as grants$564,830 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $61,170,032.
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 2018 to 2019, from $8.7M to $109M (+1152%).
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: 2018 40% · 2019 28% · 2020 8% · 2021 6% · 2022 5% · 2023 8% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% 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.
Board chair
Richard Stephens
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 12 funders, grant income rose $3.4M → $4.5M.
5 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technology); $15k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Digital Promise Global). These are real filings, and they are not money DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL raised.
From the IRS filings of DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
46% 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 DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 97% · 2019 47% · 2020 45% · 2021 59% · 2022 82% · 2023 50% — 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
42% of DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL has grown faster than three-quarters of the 363 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $51.4M on record — $51.1M federal, $310k state.
- National Science Foundation$27.1M
- Department of Education$23.7M
- Department of Commerce$199k
- INSTR SUPPORT SERVICES$246k
- CENTRAL ADMIN SERVICES$58k
- INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES$3k
- TRAINING$3k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
24%
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 DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL: 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 DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL?
- DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $62,776,980 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($20,000,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $62,776,980 in grants to DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $20,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIGITAL PROMISE GLOBAL 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 35 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