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Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

PROMISE54

PROMISE54 (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,224,621 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,930,762). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$778k
Funders on record
12
Grants received
$10M
Net assets
$0
7/12 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Promise54 does

Mission

We partner with people and organizations to solve their toughest talent-related challenges. We believe organizations will best maximize their impact and truly thrive when their teams are diverse, their cultures are inclusive, and their practices model the equity they wish to see in the world. We support organizations through vision-setting/planning around talent systems, talent recruitment, selection strategy and individual and team coaching and by centering diversity, equity and inclusion in our approach.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Promise54 partnered with dozens of organizations to provide tailored training, advising, coaching, and executive search support. In addition, the organization continued to offer its signature cohort programming focused on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and implementing effective talent management practices with more than 80 organizations across several cohorts.

    $1,032,787 spentof which $3,459 as grants$728,046 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,032,787.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($651k) Expenses 100 ($4k) Net assets 100 ($647k)2020 Revenue 1155 ($7.5M) Expenses 84588 ($3.6M) Net assets 700 ($4.5M)2021 Revenue 830 ($5.4M) Expenses 110388 ($4.8M) Net assets 800 ($5.2M)2022 Revenue 1385 ($9.0M) Expenses 101409 ($4.4M) Net assets 1519 ($9.8M)2023 Revenue 531 ($3.5M) Expenses 124789 ($5.4M) Net assets 907 ($5.9M)2024 Revenue 404 ($2.6M) Expenses 128538 ($5.5M) Net assets 330 ($2.1M)2025 Revenue 119 ($778k) Expenses 67602 ($2.9M) Net assets 0 ($0)
2019202020212022202320242025
Revenue (119)Expenses (67602)Net assets (0)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $647k to $5.6M (+770%).

$647k
$5.6M
$6.1M
$11M
$6.3M
$4.2M
$0
2019202020212022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 0% · 2021 9% · 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

5% of PROMISE54’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$647k
’19
$3.9M
’20
$650k
’21
$4.7M
’22
−$1.9M
’23
−$2.9M
’24
−$2.1M
’25
8.4
months of
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

Atyani Howard

Chief executive officer

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.

2019202020212022202320242025
Listed4811119118
Joined·+4+5+3+0+3+2
No longer listed·023215
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income fell $2.1M → $580k.

3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 PROMISE54’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

PROMISE54 leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 PROMISE54.

48%
largest funder
84%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 80% · 2020 55% · 2021 34% · 2022 89% · 2023 95% — 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

40% of PROMISE54's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

PROMISE54 draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 8 states in all.

WA
MI
NY
MA
CA
CO
DC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

PROMISE54's revenue grew 19% between 2019 and 2025.

Operating margin−274% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding PROMISE54 receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $307k on record.

State$307k
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$307k

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 PROMISE54

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

35% of spending goes to programs.

Program 35%Management 56%Fundraising 9%

Governance

3
board members
67%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

44%

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 PROMISE54: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 PROMISE54?
PROMISE54 (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,224,621 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,930,762). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does PROMISE54 have?
IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $10,224,621 in grants to PROMISE54, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of PROMISE54?
GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,930,762 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like PROMISE54 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 Promise54 →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 12 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