Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
FREE THE SLAVES
FREE THE SLAVES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,080,021 to it, the largest being THE TERRENCE AND RUTH ELKES FOUNDATION ($1,159,400). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $697k
What Free the Slaves does
Mission
To end slavery and human trafficking around the world
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Front-line anti-slavery programs fts and its partner organizations use a community-based model to help communities resist forced and bonded labor and sex trafficking of adults and children in india, nepal, haiti, ghana, and senegal. We provide the structure and training for collective action by slaves and former slaves to demand freedom, payment of wages, and protection from violence. We organize leaders to educate their communities about slavery, to take action to rescue their family members and neighbors who are in slavery, and to work to develop new systems that address key vulnerabilities within the community. These vulnerabilities may include ensuring the availability of education for children, vocational projects for communities, or access to affordable health care and legal representation. We engage local, regional and national officials to press for enforcement and strengthening of antislavery laws. We support lawyers who press for justice for victims. We support operation of shelters for survivors of trafficking and slavery. We educate and prepare people who are migrating abroad for work on ways to avoid the tricks of traffickers, and we educate children to prevent their…
$1,678,621 spentof which $129,108 as grants66% of program spendingPolicy and advocacy is a global program that supports government and businesses. With governments, our advocacy and policy program supports alliance 8.7 pathfinder countries to develop and implement survivor informed roadmaps to achieve target 8.7 of the sustainable development goal (sdg), notably eradicating forced labor, modern slavery, trafficking and the worse forms of child labor. The program is being implemented in guatemala, democratic republic of congo, kenya, philippines. With businesses, the engagement includes supporting chocolate companies to prevent, address and remediate forced labor in cocoa production and supply chain around the world. The program works at community level in cocoa growing communities to implement locally-based systems of preventing, monitoring and reporting and remediating forced labor in cocoa production. The business engagement program is being implemented in cameroon, dominican republic, nigeria, ecuador, and indonesia.
$36,650 spent1% of program spendingCommunity liberation initiative - fts works to catalyze a civil society movement against slavery by facilitating the sharing of best practices and lessons learned related to community-based anti-slavery approaches, and working with organizations that already work at a community level in slavery hot spots, and focusing on slavery-proofing entire communities rather than rescuing individuals,creating sustained community resistance and resilience it trains and coaches field staff, using the fts cl toolkit, measuring the impact of this work through its monitoring and evaluation processes.
$332,329 spent13% of program spendingMonitoring, learning & evaluation fts rigorously assesses the impact, effectiveness, relevance, efficacy and sustainability of our community- based approach to ending slavery using well-defined indicators, we track accomplishments of our grassroots partners in work planning, quarterly reporting, training and capacity building to improve accountability and learning mle contributes to the development of strong proposals and accurate reporting to funders, and supports continual learning and increased knowledge for the organization and the anti-slavery movement. Communications and advocacy fts increases awareness of slavery and our methods to eradicate it, and fosters public engagement in policy advocacy, through mass media, online outreach, video production, speaking engagements, conferences, public events, college chapters and faith community outreach. Fts trains front-line partner organizations and others to strengthen communications and media relations skills to improve outreach to slavery victims, vulnerable populations and religious, traditional and civic leaders.
$508,901 spentof which $7,273 as grants20% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,556,501.
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 2022 to 2023, from $1.0M to $702k (−31%).
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 57% · 2018 51% · 2019 47% · 2020 45% · 2021 42% · 2022 11% · 2023 43% · 2024 38% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of FREE THE SLAVES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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
Timothy Mccarthy
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 13 funders, grant income fell $520k → $496k.
12 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 FREE THE SLAVES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
FREE THE SLAVES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
52% 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 FREE THE SLAVES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 54% · 2019 23% · 2020 39% · 2021 44% · 2022 41% · 2023 37% — 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
38% of FREE THE SLAVES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
FREE THE SLAVES draws 92% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $722k 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
FREE THE SLAVES runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 718 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 718 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FREE THE SLAVES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.2M on record.
- Department of State$2.2M
- Department of Labor$2.0M
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 FREE THE SLAVES
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
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FREE THE SLAVES: 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 FREE THE SLAVES?
- FREE THE SLAVES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,080,021 to it, the largest being THE TERRENCE AND RUTH ELKES FOUNDATION ($1,159,400). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FREE THE SLAVES have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $4,080,021 in grants to FREE THE SLAVES, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FREE THE SLAVES?
- THE TERRENCE AND RUTH ELKES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,159,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FREE THE SLAVES 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.
Play a game about who funds Free the Slaves →
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 37 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