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.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.2M
- Funders on record
- 51
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Smart Growth America does
Mission
Smart Growth America envisions a country where no matter where you live, or who you are, you can enjoy living in a place that is healthy, prosperous, and resilient. Our mission is to empower communities through technical assistance, advocacy, and thought leadership to realize our vision of livable places, healthy people, and shared prosperity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education, outreach and policy: policy development and advocacy for smart growth policies at various levels of government.
$4,840,194 spent$1,552,648 earned by the program73% of program spendingImplementation and advising: provide technical assistance to communities and public officials who want information about smart growth implementation and policy making.
$1,783,979 spent$255,978 earned by the program27% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,624,173.
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 2022 to 2023, from $4.2M to $8.7M (+107%).
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
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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
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 10 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
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· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
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
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
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. Screen this nonprofit · 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 51 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