Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
OPEN CITY ADVOCATES
OPEN CITY ADVOCATES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,289,166 to it, the largest being THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION ($529,167). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Open City Advocates does
Mission
Open City Advocates provides youth-centered legal defense and holistic advocacy for young people after sentencing in the dc juvenile justice system and works for systemic improvements to the juvenile justice system, both locally and nationally, to better the lives of marginalized children and youth.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Open City Advocates serves approximately 60-70 youth annually, ranging from 14-25 years old, who are or were formerly committed to the dc department of youth rehabilitation services dyrs. We tackle racial disparity where it is most extreme, as 100 of youth committed to dcs delinquency system are youth of color. We help our clients transition home from incarceration and support their quests to continue their education, obtain employment, and become positive forces in their communities. We protect their due process rights and strive to keep them out of inherently harmful locked facilities.
$518,353 spent$46,667 earned by the program45% of program spendingSystemic reform based on the knowledge we gain from our direct client services, Open City Advocates spearheads systemic reform efforts to end the revolving door of the juvenile and criminal justice systems, safeguard and expand due process protections, and encourage individualized, trauma responsive, culturally appropriate services for court involved youth. Our primary focus is to ensure that no child must confront this complex bureaucratic system in which their liberty is constantly at risk without the support of legal counsel.
$391,007 spent34% of program spendingThroughout this year, Open City Advocates provided attendance-based scholarship stipends to clients enrolled in school or workforce development programs, along with ancillary support for basic needs, thereby creating a crucial bridge to education and job training.
$250,991 spent22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,160,351.
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 $584k to $936k (+60%).
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 30% · 2018 30% · 2019 17% · 2020 27% · 2021 39% · 2022 44% · 2023 37% · 2024 41% · 2025 31%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of OPEN CITY ADVOCATES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (93% 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.
Chief executive
Penelope Spain
CEO
Board chair
Stephen Harburg
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $119k → $420k.
5 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 OPEN CITY ADVOCATES’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
OPEN CITY ADVOCATES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
43% 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 OPEN CITY ADVOCATES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 45% · 2019 58% · 2020 23% · 2021 25% · 2022 32% · 2023 57% — growing more concentrated.
“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
42% of OPEN CITY ADVOCATES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
OPEN CITY ADVOCATES draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $312k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
OPEN CITY ADVOCATES runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like OPEN CITY 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPEN CITY 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 OPEN CITY ADVOCATES?
- OPEN CITY ADVOCATES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,289,166 to it, the largest being THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION ($529,167). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPEN CITY ADVOCATES have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $2,289,166 in grants to OPEN CITY ADVOCATES, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN CITY ADVOCATES?
- THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $529,167 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN CITY ADVOCATES 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 Open City Advocates →
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 27 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