Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
SMART GROWTH AMERICA
SMART GROWTH AMERICA (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,737,144 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($4,980,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
SMART GROWTH AMERICA's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 19 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 881 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Energy Foundationshared fundersportfolio match
- American Clean Power Associationportfolio match
- Breakthrough Energy Action Incportfolio match
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.
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: 2017 23% · 2018 24% · 2019 24% · 2020 10% · 2021 15% · 2022 15% · 2023 11% · 2024 14% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
75% of SMART GROWTH AMERICA’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. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $1.9M → $3.2M.
13 of 51 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 SMART GROWTH AMERICA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 51 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
SMART GROWTH AMERICA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 27% · 2019 23% · 2020 43% · 2021 74% · 2022 28% · 2023 41% — growing more concentrated.
“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 SMART GROWTH AMERICA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
SMART GROWTH AMERICA draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 51 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Energy Foundationshared fundersportfolio matchCA · backs 122 organizations that share your funders · its grantees resemble your mission
- American Clean Power Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Breakthrough Energy Action Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pacific Environmental Coalitionportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Partnership Project Action Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- E4thefuture Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Economic Freedom Alliance Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Climate Imperative Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Climateworks Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 95 organizations that share your funders
- Mertz Gilmore Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 76 organizations that share your funders
- The Heising-Simons Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 143 organizations that share your funders
- Environmental Defense Fund Incorporatedshared fundersNY · backs 105 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding SMART GROWTH AMERICA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.4M on record — $7.3M federal, $191k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$2.7M
- Department of Transportation$2.0M
- Department of Commerce$1.8M
- National Endowment for the Arts$335k
- Environmental Protection Agency$319k
- Department of Agriculture$100k
- VT$185k
- OR$4k
- NJ$2k
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 SMART GROWTH AMERICA
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
48%
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 SMART GROWTH AMERICA: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds SMART GROWTH AMERICA?
- SMART GROWTH AMERICA (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,737,144 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($4,980,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SMART GROWTH AMERICA have?
- IRS filings report 51 organizations giving $19,737,144 in grants to SMART GROWTH AMERICA, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SMART GROWTH AMERICA?
- BARR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,980,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SMART GROWTH AMERICA 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 51funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing