Kentucky · Nonprofit
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS (Kentucky) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,140,781 to it, the largest being LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION ($9,734,581). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $67M
- Funders on record
- 77
- Grants received
- $29M
- Net assets
- $36M
What Council of State Governments does
Mission
The Council of State Governments (csg) is a nonpartisan community of the states, committed to connecting, informing, inspiring and empowering public servants in all three branches of state government to put the best ideas and solutions into practice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grants and contracts - csg manages a range of federally and privately funded grants, contracts, and special projects focused on issues that matter to states and u.s. Territories. These initiatives include supporting state-led innovation in key policy areas such as improving state justice systems and strengthening workforce readiness. Federal grants include the u.s. Departments of justice, labor, defense, and energy, among others. Each grant-funded initiative is designed to be nonpartisan and data-driven, providing states with opportunities for collaborating and developing actionable tools and resources to enhance services and outcomes for their residents.
$34,351,958 spent$13,297,646 earned by the program59% of program spendingCsg national office - the csg national office houses projects, publications and special initiatives that foster collaboration and community between elected and appointed officials from across the country and the six u.s. Territories. The csg national office is home to the csg national center for interstate compacts and the csg henry toll fellowship national leadership development program.
$9,776,133 spent17% of program spendingThe csg regional offices - csg east, csg midwest, csg south and csg west - allow state officials to connect on shared issues that are geographically based including federal lands, water rights, agriculture, border relations and more. Csg regional offices also host conferences, in-state visits and leadership development programs that allow officials to regionally network.
$7,946,379 spent$91,823 earned by the program14% of program spendingConferences - state leaders from all three branches of government are joined by policy experts as well as private sector and community partners from across the united states to share ideas and explore solutions to the complex policy issues facing the states.
$6,426,098 spent$1,619,073 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $58,500,568.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $43M to $58M (+33%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 46% · 2023 45% · 2024 42% · 2025 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
David Adkins
Executive director/CEO
Board chair
Sen Elgie Sims
National chair and board member
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $1.9M → $6.1M.
4 of 77 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 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
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 36% · 2019 28% · 2020 53% · 2021 58% · 2022 53% · 2023 39% — 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
31% of COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% 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
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 24 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $100k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Government funding COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $197.1M on record.
- Department of Justice$153.8M
- Department of Labor$16.0M
- Department of Energy$9.3M
- Department of Agriculture$7.3M
- Department of Defense$5.4M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.2M
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 COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS
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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS: 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 COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS?
- COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS (Kentucky) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,140,781 to it, the largest being LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION ($9,734,581). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS have?
- IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $29,140,781 in grants to COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS?
- LAURA AND JOHN ARNOLD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $9,734,581 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Council of State Governments →
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 77 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