Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 209 organizations whose IRS filings report $176,778,868 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($38,424,837). 97 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $55M
- Funders on record
- 209
- Grants received
- $177M
- Net assets
- $93M
What Protect Democracy Project does
Mission
The mission of Protect Democracy Project is to prevent our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. We do this by working to strengthen the checks and balances that have held the executive branch accountable to the laws and longstanding practices that have protected our democracy through both democratic and republican administrations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Protect Democracy Project provides public education about threats to democratic norms and institutions and how the american people can best confront them. Protect Democracy Project advances its educational mission through monitoring, investigating, advocacy, lobbying, public outreach, and, when appropriate, litigating against actions that threaten our democracy and the free, fair, and fully-informed pursuit of self-government.
$28,277,727 spentof which $7,218,161 as grants$288,628 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $28,277,727.
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 2023 to 2024, from $73M to $95M (+29%).
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.
94% of PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Ian Bassin
President/executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 78 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $28M.
49 of 209 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 209 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
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
58% 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 PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 25% · 2019 49% · 2020 41% · 2021 21% · 2022 28% · 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
49% of PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
55% of PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT'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 $80M that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 27 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $96M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 152 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 152 civil rights nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 16 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Voteshield Protection LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT: 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 PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT?
- PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 209 organizations whose IRS filings report $176,778,868 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($38,424,837). 97 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 209 organizations giving $176,778,868 in grants to PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT, 97 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $38,424,837 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT 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 209 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