Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE
OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,915,647 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,239,610). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Open Markets Institute does
Mission
The Open Markets Institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Fair economy - open markets uses research and journalism to expose the dangers of monopolization, identifies interventions in policy and law to address them, and educates policymakers, academics, movement groups, and other influential stakeholders to re-establish the competitive markets that have long formed the bedrock of american democracy. By combining policy, legal, and market structure expertise with sophisticated communications, education, and coalition-building efforts, open markets seeks not only to hold today's monopolies accountable for abuse of power, but to rebuild an economic system where progress is easier to achieve, because power is far more widely and equitably distributed.
$1,033,798 spent34% of program spendingTechnology and democracy - since our launch as an independent organization, the open markets team has focused on sounding the alarm on the monopolistic practices and harms of facebook, google, and amazon. We are excited to see that this is now a part of the national debate and the momentum for action. While we continue to focus our efforts on ensuring structural remedies are applied to the harms of these platform monopolies, we plan to significantly expand our work on technology and power beyond the three big platforms. The mission of the technology & power program is to ensure that new technologies always serve the interest of the public as a whole and cannot be used to concentrate dangerous degrees of power and control over the actions or thoughts of individuals, groups, or entire societies.
$665,565 spent22% of program spendingCompetition law and philosophy - open markets seeks to accelerate shaping the direction of the law through research and the filing of amicus briefs and comment letters and petitions to federal agencies in antitrust cases and other competition policy matters. This work has already had influence. We have also seen considerable success in driving action through our state attorneys general program as seen in the two major investigations announced into google and facebook. In addition, we have also worked with state offices on issues related to agriculture, labor, and healthcare.
$665,428 spent22% of program spendingInternational systems - public policies that affect the terms of trade with other nations, including tariffs, have profound effects on the structure of markets, ranging from unwarranted protection for domestic monopolies to the promotion of transnational trading companies that exploit labor, evade environmental standards, and create dangerously overextended supply channels. At the same time trade policy plays an important role in strengthening or weakening america's geopolitical position in the world, making trade, competition policy, and national security intrinsically linked.
$652,184 spent22% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,016,975.
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 2018 to 2019, from $1.2M to $3.5M (+193%).
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.
100% of OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Barry Lynn
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $295k → $2.3M.
8 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 MARKETS INSTITUTE’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 MARKETS INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
54% 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 MARKETS INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 51% · 2019 32% · 2020 50% · 2021 42% · 2022 42% · 2023 31% — 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
44% of OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
50% of OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE'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 $9.9M that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M 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 MARKETS INSTITUTE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,761 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,761 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
45%
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 OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE: 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 MARKETS INSTITUTE?
- OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,915,647 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,239,610). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $19,915,647 in grants to OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $9,239,610 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN MARKETS INSTITUTE 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 29 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