Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
PUBLIC CITIZEN INC
PUBLIC CITIZEN INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 110 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,150,340 to it, the largest being The Sheila Dave & Sherry Gold Foundation CO Jeff Gold ($2,770,000). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $17M
- Funders on record
- 110
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What Public Citizen Inc does
Mission
Work for consumer rights
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Public information and education - public citizen is active in every public forum: congress, the courts, government agencies, and the news media. Public citizen believes that full disclosure of government information empowers citizens and consumers. All of public citizen's communication and outreach efforts aim to make information about health care, transportation, climate change, international trade, nuclear waste and reactor safety, renewable energy, government and corporate accountability and related issues accessible to ordinary citizens. If necessary, public citizen uses the courts to ensure fair access to information.
$4,497,491 spentof which $188,500 as grants52% of program spendingCongress watch - this program seeks to curb the influence of special interest dollars that corrupt the political process and publicize corporate welfare expenditures that lard the federal budget, works for campaign finance reform and tough lobby registration requirements, champions consumer legislation including areas of transportation policy, lobbies to strengthen health and safety standards.
$1,717,214 spentof which $20,000 as grants20% of program spendingGlobal trade watch - acting on its belief that so called "free trade" treaties cost u.s. Jobs, reduce wages, undermine our democratic rights, and jeopardize health, safety, and the environment, global trade watch leads a national coalition of environmental, consumer, labor, religious, and family farm groups united against the corporate push for globalization through treaties such as the north american free trade agreement (nafta) and the world trade organization (wto) agreements.
$1,108,240 spent13% of program spendingPublications - public citizen publishes public citizen news, a bi-monthly newsletter that covers all the issues the organization works on including trade, health and safety, energy, climate change, and government and corporate accountability.
$323,694 spent4% of program spendingThe energy program - is a powerful voice in the movement to avertcatastrophic climate change, decrease reliance on nuclear and fossilfuels, and to promote energy efficiency and develop renewable energysources.
$67,679 spent1% of program spendingAccess to medicines - public citizen's access to medicines group works with partners worldwide to improve health outcomes and save lives, through use of pharmaceutical cost-lowering measures including generic competition. They help civil society groups and public agencies overcome patent-based and other drug monopolies. Their work challenges big pharma's economic and political power.
$91,014 spent1% of program spendingPc texas - pc texas informs texans on important energy, trade, campaign finance reform, ethics, transportation, and utility issues.
$876,379 spent10% of program spendingHealth research group
$1,678 spent0% of program spendingLitigation group
$2,751 spent0% of program spending
The 9 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,686,140.
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 $3.3M to $7.9M (+141%).
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.
96% of PUBLIC CITIZEN INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Jason Adkins
Director, chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $788k → $1.6M.
3 of 110 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $625k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Public Citizen Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money PUBLIC CITIZEN INC raised.
From the IRS filings of PUBLIC CITIZEN INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 110 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
PUBLIC CITIZEN INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
62% 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 PUBLIC CITIZEN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 62% · 2019 40% · 2020 34% · 2021 33% · 2022 57% · 2023 28% — 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
26% of PUBLIC CITIZEN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
PUBLIC CITIZEN INC draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M 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.
Against its field
PUBLIC CITIZEN INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 144 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 144 public benefit nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding PUBLIC CITIZEN INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $124 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $124
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 PUBLIC CITIZEN 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PUBLIC CITIZEN 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 CITIZEN INC?
- PUBLIC CITIZEN INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 110 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,150,340 to it, the largest being The Sheila Dave & Sherry Gold Foundation CO Jeff Gold ($2,770,000). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PUBLIC CITIZEN INC have?
- IRS filings report 110 organizations giving $12,150,340 in grants to PUBLIC CITIZEN INC, 55 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PUBLIC CITIZEN INC?
- The Sheila Dave & Sherry Gold Foundation CO Jeff Gold is the largest funder on record, with $2,770,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PUBLIC CITIZEN INC 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 110 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