California · Nonprofit
EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES
EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES (California) receives grants from 69 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,858,650 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,507,700). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 69
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $4.8M
What Equal Rights Advocates does
Mission
To protect and expand educational and economic opportunities for women and girls and others with marginalized gender identities. With a focus on low income women, era addresses economic insecurity, gender based violence, workplace inequities, childcare, and the needs of working families.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal advocacy, services, & enforcement - era provides free legal advice and counseling as well as legal representation to students and workers in need across the nation. Through impact litigation and other enforcement strategies, era challenges sex harassment discrimination at work and school and other unlawful conduct violating civil and constitutional rights. Building on 50+ years of groundbreaking legal work, including cases up to the supreme court, era leads groundbreaking cases affirming rights and confirming its reach to those most impacted by inequities.era leads state and national collaborative impact campaigns/networks with 500+ organizational partners to build power behind mission-aligned system reform. These include, stronger california advocates network, equal pay today, the stop harassment state network (collectively, women's agenda initiatives) and the national taskforce on tradeswomen issues, which became a project of era in 2024. In the past decade alone, era has helped drive the passage of 66 laws in california and 183 laws nationwide benefitting 30 million in advancing workplace equity, poverty alleviation and wealth generation, the needs of working families,…
$2,151,106 spent$2,400 earned by the program61% of program spendingCommunity education and culture/narrative change - era educates students and workers and allies across the country about legal rights and mission goals through its national action team alerts, digital campaigns, website content, policy videos, media thought leadership, educational events and programs, and the era digital policy hub. Era's efforts garner over 100 million social media impressions annually reaching community members across the country, including equal pay day events and campaigns with partners across the country. Era also conducts community research to track trends and develop programs responsive to the needs of those it serves.
$1,401,015 spent39% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,552,121.
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 $3.1M to $7.4M (+134%).
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: 2021 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (71% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Noreen Farrell
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $458k → $1.6M.
25 of 69 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 69 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
EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 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 EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 23% · 2019 21% · 2020 28% · 2021 21% · 2022 17% · 2023 19% — 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
41% of EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
54% of EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $6.0M that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from funders outside California, across 14 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 390 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 390 unclassified nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $350k on record.
- Department of Labor$350k
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 EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES
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
79% 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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES: 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 EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES?
- EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES (California) receives grants from 69 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,858,650 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,507,700). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES have?
- IRS filings report 69 organizations giving $12,858,650 in grants to EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,507,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES 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 69 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