California · Nonprofit
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,991,199 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($3,690,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $8.0M
- Net assets
- $3.9M
What Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc does
Mission
To advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal Advocacy - DREDF advances the civil rights of people with disabilities through impact litigation and advocacy in courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies.In 2025, DREDF continued major litigation challenging the failure of Kaiser and California regulators to require adequate wheelchair coverage in Affordable Care Actregulated health plans. A settlement with state agencies led to adoption of a new California benchmark plan requiring meaningful wheelchair benefits, scheduled to take effect in 2027 pending federal approval, while DREDF continues to pursue individual claims against Kaiser.DREDF also continued monitoring in Armstrong v. News-om, enforcing disability rights in California prisons, with a focus on safety for people with mobility disabilities during emergencies.In education, DREDF secured an attorney fee award following its successful litigation in C.B. v. Moreno Valley Unified School District, which resulted in damages, district-wide reforms, and a precedent-setting ruling protecting disabled students from discriminatory discipline.DREDF led enforcement of Californias prohibition on discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders, filing suit against 30…
$1,844,789 spentof which $29,120 as grants$796,534 earned by the program60% of program spendingChild and Family Advocacy - DREDFs Parent Training and Information Center provides technical assistance and training on the rights of families and children with disabilities in special education to parents, advocates and professionals. In FY 2025, our education advocates made 2,865 contacts to families across 30 counties in Northern California, directly helping parents and students navigate the special education system and learn their rights in the IEP process. DREDFs education advocates also presented 36 trainings and conducted outreach at 19 events across Northern California. Notably, DREDF kicked off a new, recorded training series, Special Education Academy, that walks attendees through the special education process and can be accessed on DREDFs YouTube channel afterward. The topics of DREDFs additional trainings ranged from supporting foster youth in special education, supporting tribal children with IEPs, learning the basics of special education rights and the IEP process, understanding disability accommodations in post-secondary education, and supporting related professionals as experts in the IEP process. The education advocates also attended several county educational…
$557,168 spent18% of program spendingNational Disability Policy and Research - DREDF conducts research, monitors public policy, and provides technical assistance on issues affecting people with disabilities. We advocate for disability civil and human rights in coalition with disability, civil rights, and community organizations, particularly where disability intersects with race, ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ+ status, and immigration status.In 2025, DREDF was deeply engaged in defending federal programs critical to people with disabilities, including Medicaid, health insurance, food assistance, special education, fair housing, accessible transportation and infrastructure, and civil rights enforcement. We issued public alerts and plain-language guidance, mobilized constituents, amplified partner advocacy, submitted comments to Congress, and participated in Hill visits to protect funding and inclusive policies relied on by Californians with disabilities.DREDF also produced policy papers on key issues, including source-of-income discrimination in housing, emerging strategies in Olmsted litigation to expand accessible housing, and the safety and accessibility needs of Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, and DeafDisabled…
$506,962 spent16% of program spendingMedia - DREDF continues to expand its strategic communications efforts to enhance outreach across traditional and social media, elevating disability civil rights. This year, DREDF responded to over 80 press inquiries. In February 2025, DREDF experienced a massive increase in page views and followers due to its coverage of a case that threatened Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. DREDF has over 43,000 followers on social media, over 18,000 subscribers to its email list, and its website averages 1,000 daily page views. During FY 2025, the website had 920,000 views.
$102,147 spent3% of program spendingPublic Education & Technical Assistance - DREDF continues to prioritize theaccessibility of its materials when it amplifies key disability issues through itspartnership with the California Office of Community Partnerships and StrategicCommunications (OCPSC). DREDF serves as a trusted messenger of OCPSC to Californianswith disabilities. DREDF conducted trainings and provided technical assistance ondisability access and inclusion to community-based organizations throughoutCalifornia, building the capacity of over 600 community workers to effectivelyserve and support disabled people and their families.
$71,438 spent2% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,082,504.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.7M to $3.4M (+96%).
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: 2017 32% · 2018 27% · 2019 51% · 2020 55% · 2021 24% · 2022 43% · 2023 54% · 2024 55% · 2025 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 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
H Stephen Kaye
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 12 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $392k → $869k.
12 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
47% 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 Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 39% · 2019 62% · 2020 86% · 2021 46% · 2022 47% · 2023 44% — broadly stable.
“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
44% of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 39% 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
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M 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
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 431 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.4M on record.
- Department of Education$2.4M
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 Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- DREDF Development Partnership Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc: 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 Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc?
- Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,991,199 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($3,690,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $7,991,199 in grants to Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,690,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc 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.
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 38 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