Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
The Data Foundation Inc
The Data Foundation Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,903,674 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($1,550,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What The Data Foundation Inc does
Mission
Through research, education and programming, the Data Foundation promotes evidence-informed policymaking and open data to improve society.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Data Foundation supported numerous efforts related to financial data, open data, data sharing, and usability through partnerships and engagement with Congress and the Executive Branch. Hosted events such as RegTech Data Summit, a Research Symposium on Data and Evidence for Better Government; provided opportunities to bring leading experts from industry, academia, and government together to develop a shared understanding of challenges and solutions related to Evidence Act implementation; issued a compendium of insights and perspectives generated from the 2022 research symposium; issued a descriptive summary of results from a survey of federal chief data officers; encouraged improved data literacy and alignment with data governance strategies in the public sector, led the enactment of milestone legislation including the National Secure Data Service and the Financial Data Transparency Act; supported implementation of new transparency and data laws; and demonstrated new strategies for continuing to innovate with government data.
$1,441,119 spent$232,429 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,441,119.
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 $1.1M to $2.0M (+87%).
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: 2020 24% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of The Data Foundation Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
Sherry Weir
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $25k → $882k.
3 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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: $25k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Data Coalition). These are real filings, and they are not money The Data Foundation Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of The Data Foundation Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
The Data Foundation Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 54% · 2021 63% · 2022 92% · 2023 45% — 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
20% of The Data Foundation Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 25% 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
The Data Foundation Inc draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $75k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
The Data Foundation Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,003 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,003 public benefit nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like The Data Foundation Inc
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
45%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Data Foundation Inc: 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 The Data Foundation Inc?
- The Data Foundation Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,903,674 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($1,550,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Data Foundation Inc have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $4,903,674 in grants to The Data Foundation Inc, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Data Foundation Inc?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,550,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Data Foundation Inc 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.
Play a game about who funds Data →
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 16 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