Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
OPENSECRETS
OPENSECRETS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,015,854 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($6,050,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $2.6M
What Opensecrets does
Mission
Opensecrets was formed in 2021 by the merger of the center for responsive politics and the national institute on money in politics. This independent and nonpartisan organization educates the american public about money's influence on state (continued on schedule 'o') and federal elections, politics and policy, and advocates for a more transparent and accountable government. Opensecrets' mission is to track and report on the flow of money in american politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy. Our vision is for americans to use this knowledge to create a more vibrant, representative and accountable government.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Programs
Data, Research and Analysis: OPENSECRETS reporting staff and researchers work hand-in-hand to comb the data for patterns and anomalies, put the data in context, identify trends and provide the money-in-politics angle to timely news stories, topics of popular interest and policy debates. OPENSECRETS continually updates and improves its data to provide an accurate, consistent and comprehensive resource for the press, scholars, advocates and public. OPENSECRETS frequently works with other organizations to combine its unique value-added data with other data sets, and to create features illustrating the role money plays in politics and decision-making. Original Reporting, Media Partnerships and Training: OPENSECRETS news team follows the money to provide original and timely reporting using its data on topics of interest at the national, state and local levels. This work and these insights are shared with the public through our newsletter, OPENSECRETS news, reports and data tools. Every year, OPENSECRETS staff assist hundreds of news organizations, large and small, with their money in politics investigations. These collaborations result in tens of thousands of citations of OPENSECRETS…
$1,552,601 spent$581,044 earned by the program59% of program spendingCivic Education and Outreach: A four-time webby winner for being the best politics resource online, OPENSECRETS website, opensecrets.org, allows its millions of users to explore the connections between money and politics, and hold elected and appointed officials accountable. Freely available, easy-to-use databases track state and federal campaign contributions, lobbying, the revolving door and politicians personal finances in a variety of illuminating ways, such as by industry and interest group. OPENSECRETS reaches out to engage with new audiences via social media, partnerships, presentations and trainings, our online newsletter and interactive tools on our site. OPENSECRETS research is cited tens of thousands of times each year in the nations most prominent print, broadcast and online news outlets.
$1,090,324 spent41% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,642,925.
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 $3.0M to $6.0M (+101%).
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 4% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of OPENSECRETS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Hilary Braseth
Executive Director
Board chair
Daniel Doktori
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $694k → $1.9M.
19 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 OPENSECRETS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
OPENSECRETS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 38% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 66% · 2019 54% · 2020 43% · 2021 77% · 2022 22% · 2023 27% — 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
52% of OPENSECRETS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
OPENSECRETS draws 92% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
OPENSECRETS has grown faster than half of the 1,003 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,003 public benefit nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like OPENSECRETS
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 OPENSECRETS: 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 OPENSECRETS?
- OPENSECRETS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,015,854 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($6,050,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPENSECRETS have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $16,015,854 in grants to OPENSECRETS, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPENSECRETS?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,050,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPENSECRETS 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 Opensecrets →
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 82 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