New York · Nonprofit
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC (New York) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,098,956 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($1,450,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Public Accountability Initiative Inc does
Mission
The public accountability initiative conducts research and educational activities that bring transparency to influence public sector and private sector institutions and their key relationship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tech: pai maintains littlesis.org, an open, public database and research platform that brings transparency to influential networks in the public and private sectors. The database aggregates public information on over 407,000 influential individuals and institutions, ranging from public officials to large corporations, and nearly 1,700,000 relationships among them, ranging from employment relationships to campaign contributions. Volunteer editors contribute well-course data to littlesis and build maps of power networks using our data visualization tools. In 2022-2023, littlesis' user base grew by 2,000 new users who mapped out over 69,000 new relationships between entities on the site. Littlesis tech is cited regularly by activists, researchers, journalists, and public interest organizations. This tech supports groundbreaking investigations and high-impact grassroots campaigns.
$664,325 spent100% of program spendingResearch: pai's research program investigates issues of corporate and government accountanility and brings transparency to the role of powerful public sector and private sector institutions in shaping public policy. Pai releases research in the form of reports, articles, infographics, and datasets. Pai's research has garnered significant media coverage, prompted accountability measures and public and private institutions,and informed groundbreaking campaigns. Pai's primary focus areas include the finance industry and the fossil fuel industry, and corporate power on the regional and state level. In 2022-2023, our research touched on issues including investor-owned utilities, fossil fuel finance, wall street speculation, the revolving door between business and government, corporate subsidies, and money in politics. Our research earns major media coverage and helps drive compaign strategy and wins.
Training: pai trains journalists, astivists, and reseachers in how to conduct power research using littlesis.org and other tools and methodologies. The goal of this work is to cultivate more movement capacity to research and challenge influtial networks in the public and private sector. We conduct trainings in person and online via webinar, and offer them independently and in partnership with other public interested organizations. In 2022-2023, we condcuted a number of trainings on littlesis tech tools including how to edit the research database, how to research publicly-held corporations, research techniques for private companies and non-for-profit organizations, and how to research political contributions.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $664,325.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.2M to $1.8M (+55%).
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.
86% of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC’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. 2 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.
Board chair
Maya Ragsdale
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $60k → $660k.
2 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC’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
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 49% · 2019 43% · 2020 39% · 2021 38% · 2022 33% · 2023 38% — 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
38% of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC'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
70% of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $85k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 497 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 497 public benefit nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
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 PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC: 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 PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC?
- PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC (New York) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,098,956 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($1,450,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $4,098,956 in grants to PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Public Accountability Initiative →
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 21 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