Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,439,917 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($600,000). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.6M
- Funders on record
- 118
- Grants received
- $5.4M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Leveling the Playing Field Inc does
Mission
Leveling the playing field gives underprivileged children the opportunity to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of youth sports participation. We do this through the donation of used and excess sporting equipment to programs and schools serving low-income communities.our donations allow programs to allocate funds saved by lowering registration fees, expanding their scholarship programs, enhancing their existing athletic program and/or developing new ones.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Collection and distribution program:the majority of the equipment in our warehouse is a result of our collection program that brings in donated sporting goods from individual donors. Below are the main avenues that equipment reached our warehouse through the collection program:-everyday people come to our warehouse to drop off equipment from their home. It ranges from a bag of gear to a full suv full of equipment.-we run collection drives during most weekends in the fall & spring. We partner with sports leagues, tournaments, school events, neighborhood events and other community events where we feel we can bring in a lot of donated equipment.-we have a large volunteer collection program where the community runs their own drives to benefit our mission. These often include eagle scout projects and mitzvah projects.-we have bins located throughout the community at local parks, ice rinks, sports goods stores, fitness centers and other venues.we also receive equipment from manufacturers such as under armour and stx. These are typically items the companies are looking to liquidate and write off. In addition to the manufacturers and some sports goods stores liquidating to us, we also…
$5,349,984 spentof which $3,694,199 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,349,984.
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 $2.7M to $3.6M (+35%).
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 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 4% · 2020 5% · 2021 2% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Max Levitt
Executive director
Board chair
Tracy Scarrow
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $118k → $1.1M.
17 of 118 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 118 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
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
44% 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 LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 50% · 2019 19% · 2020 12% · 2021 23% · 2022 10% · 2023 18% — 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
50% of LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC draws 84% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M 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
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD 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 Washington, D.C.
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
100%
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 LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD 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 LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC?
- LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,439,917 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($600,000). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC have?
- IRS filings report 118 organizations giving $5,439,917 in grants to LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC, 55 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC?
- THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD INC 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 118 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