Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
ROCK THE VOTE
ROCK THE VOTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 97 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,161,974 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,940,061). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 97
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Rock the Vote does
Mission
Founded in 1990, Rock the Vote is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building the civic power of young people through voter registration, education and mobilization and reducing barriers to participation by modernizing the civic process and fighting for young peoples right to vote.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Culture of Voting - Rock the Vote drives civic engagement by meeting young people where they are online, offline, and in spaces that shape their identities. Through trusted messengers, compelling storytelling, and research-based content, we harness social media to mobilize young voters. We integrate civic participation into concerts, festivals, and cultural moments, making it a natural part of young peoples lives.Partnerships with brands, entertainment companies,ssociations,sports leagues,and cultural influencers amplify democratic participation. In 2024,Rock the Votes multi-media campaign Voting is Self-Care earned 310 million impressions. The organization generated 272.4 million additional social media impressions and 128 media hits reaching 2.73 million people. Rock the Vote produced early vote microevents in 18 cities and large-scale early vote concerts and festivals in three cities. We partnered with dozens of athletes, influencers, musicians, and actors, plus more than 30 brands, leagues, and teams who served as trusted messengers to share vetted information and resources
$6,871,612 spent85% of program spendingVoter Education - Rock the Vote delivers nonpartisan civic education across digital platforms, civic technology tools, classrooms, and community events, giving young people the knowledge to participate in democracy. Our Election Reminder Program provides step-by-step guidance via text, email, and our online Election Center. Through our innovative ballot education tool, Democracy Explainers and Democracy Class curriculum, we equip young people with the knowledge and skills to be informed voters. In 2024, 5.5 million people visited Rock the Votes Election Center for vetted information on election dates, deadlines, polling locations, and voting policies. Voters used Rock the Votes Ballot Tool in to view sample ballots with 34,021 endorsements from 3,667 sources across the political spectrum. Rock the Vote sent Election Reminders via email and text to over five million subscribers, adding 1.24 million new subscribers in 2024. More than 470 educators signed up for Democracy Class while 662,208 viewed our Democracy Explainers with 273,278 active readers.
$669,692 spent8% of program spendingVoter Registration Mobilization - Rock the Vote engages and mobilizes young voters through digital tools, on-the-ground organizing, and partnerships. Recognizing that voting is habit-forming, we reach young people early to build lifelong civic participation.Rock the Vote develops and maintains civic technology that guides users through voter registration, status checks, and absentee ballot requests. These secure, compliant tools are provided free to nonprofits, schools, companies, and influencers nationwide, and are integrated into our own programs.In 2024, Rock the Vote provided technology tools to 192 partners, reaching 1,885,334 voters through our Online Voter Registration platform, Registration Status Lookup, Absentee Ballot Request Platform, Pledge to Vote Tool, and Ballot Tracking and Curing Tool. We directly messaged 252,216 unregistered young voters across two states with 975,938 registration contacts and coordinated 3,500 handwritten postcards to new voters. On Election Day, staff contacted 203,791 eligible young voters unlikely to have been reached by campaigns or parties
$578,611 spent$221,814 earned by the program7% of program spendingProgram Service Expenses 11,397, Grants and allocations 0, Revenue 0 Voting Rights Election Protection - Rock the Vote works to reduce barriers to participation and protect a healthy democracy by championing young peoples right to vote. Through initiatives, partnerships, and educational resources, Rock the Vote equips young voters with knowledge about civic systems and democratic foundations while defending access and modernizing the electoral process.In 2024, Rock the Vote participated in the Election Protection Coalition and promoted the 1-888-Our-Vote Election Protection Hotline through its Election Reminders program, Voting is Self-Care campaign, brand partnerships, and social media. Rock the Vote continued outreach to state election officials to promote adoption of connected voter registration to streamline and modernize voter registration.
$11,397 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,131,312.
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 $807k to $3.8M (+366%).
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.
98% of ROCK THE VOTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Carolyn Dewitt
President/executive director
Board chair
1 Amanda Brown Lierman
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $405k → $909k.
30 of 97 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 ROCK THE VOTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 97 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
ROCK THE VOTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
60% 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 ROCK THE VOTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 47% · 2019 33% · 2020 16% · 2021 34% · 2022 14% · 2023 16% — 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
27% of ROCK THE VOTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
ROCK THE VOTE draws 95% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 22 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
ROCK THE VOTE 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 ROCK THE VOTE
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
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROCK THE VOTE: 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 ROCK THE VOTE?
- ROCK THE VOTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 97 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,161,974 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,940,061). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROCK THE VOTE have?
- IRS filings report 97 organizations giving $15,161,974 in grants to ROCK THE VOTE, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROCK THE VOTE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $4,940,061 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROCK THE VOTE 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 97 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