Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
EMPOWER DC
EMPOWER DC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,196,231 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,266,631). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $6.2M
- Net assets
- $3.6M
What Empower DC does
Mission
The mission of Empower DC is to build the power of dc residents through resident-led community organizing to advance racial, economic, and environmental justice.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, Empower DC continued to advance community organizing, tenant rights, housing justice, and environmental justice across the district of columbia. We conducted outreach at more than 300 multi-family buildings where tenants were facing poor housing conditions, eviction threats, displacement pressures, and other urgent concerns. We also visited the homes of over 500 residents facing eviction and connected them with information about their rights, available resources, and opportunities to take collective action. Empower DC held 65 tenant meetings with public housing residents, voucher holders, and other tenants to share information, identify common concerns, develop organizing strategies, and prepare residents to advocate for themselves and their communities. We also held 8 environmental justice 101 training sessions across the city and led 15 environmental justice walking tours in impacted communities to build resident knowledge, leadership, and public awareness of environmental harms affecting dc neighborhoods. Our members remained active in local advocacy and public decision-making. Empower DC members presented 67 testimonies before the dc council, and 27 members…
$1,040,511 spentof which $10,000 as grants$15,301 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,040,511.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2022 to 2023, from $2.1M to $3.4M (+64%).
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: 2023 6% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of EMPOWER DC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% 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
Parisa Norouzi
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $169k → $1.1M.
5 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 EMPOWER DC’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
EMPOWER DC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 37% 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
70% 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 EMPOWER DC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 58% · 2019 35% · 2020 44% · 2021 41% · 2022 35% · 2023 36% — 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
46% of EMPOWER DC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
78% of EMPOWER DC's grant income comes from Washington, D.C. funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M 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.
Against its field
EMPOWER DC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like EMPOWER DC
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EMPOWER DC: 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 EMPOWER DC?
- EMPOWER DC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,196,231 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,266,631). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EMPOWER DC have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $6,196,231 in grants to EMPOWER DC, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EMPOWER DC?
- GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,266,631 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EMPOWER DC 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 2019–2024), and the filings of 30 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