Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
RACE FORWARD
RACE FORWARD (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,408,485 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($13,047,222). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $21M
- Funders on record
- 123
- Grants received
- $101M
- Net assets
- $28M
What Race Forward does
Mission
Race Forward supports communities and public institutions to achieve a just multiracial democratic society through governance that advances social justice.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
For more than 40 years, Race Forward has brought a systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity. Our vision and mission: -vision: Race Forward imagines a just, multiracial, democratic society, free from oppression and exploitation, in which people of color thrive with power and purpose. -mission: Race Forward catalyzes racial justice movement building. In partnership with communities, organizations, and sectors, we build strategies to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. Theory of change: -grow power: we need connected and aligned networks of people, organizations, and movements to build the collective power (economic, social, political, etc.) necessary to counter structural racism and steward transformative solutions for racial justice. -transform culture: we must harness the power of narrative, arts, and culture to assert the full humanity of communities of color, challenge racist ideologies that fuel structural racism, and envision a more just and equitable future. -transform policy: we must position communities of color and other historically oppressed communities as…
$20,943,390 spentof which $1,767,145 as grants$1,445,066 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $20,943,390.
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 $24M to $42M (+74%).
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%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of RACE FORWARD’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Board chair
Christi Tran
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $3.0M → $17M.
24 of 123 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.
Left out of every figure on this page: $645k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Center for Social Inclusion). These are real filings, and they are not money RACE FORWARD raised.
From the IRS filings of RACE FORWARD’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 123 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
RACE FORWARD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
33% 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 RACE FORWARD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 29% · 2019 27% · 2020 14% · 2021 41% · 2022 19% · 2023 33% — 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
25% of RACE FORWARD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
RACE FORWARD draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 24 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $22M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
RACE FORWARD is better cushioned than half of the 659 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 659 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding RACE FORWARD receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $236k on record.
- OR$197k
- VT$36k
- NJ$3k
- CT$1k
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 RACE FORWARD
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
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 18 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Race Forward Action · exempt
- Equity Action · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for RACE FORWARD: 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 RACE FORWARD?
- RACE FORWARD (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,408,485 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($13,047,222). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RACE FORWARD have?
- IRS filings report 123 organizations giving $101,408,485 in grants to RACE FORWARD, 58 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RACE FORWARD?
- WK Kellogg Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $13,047,222 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RACE FORWARD 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 123 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