New York · Nonprofit
The Forward Association Inc
The Forward Association Inc (New York) receives grants from 108 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,657,354 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,325,910). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.7M
- Funders on record
- 108
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What The Forward Association Inc does
Mission
The forward's mission is to strengthen engagement with jewish ideas and communities through a variety of media, and in public events. It carries out this mission by publishing commentary on current issues and the arts, in english and yiddish, that meet the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression. It furthers this mission through partnerships and collaborations that engage deeply with the history, range and variety of the american jewish experience.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The largest program of the Forward Assocation is its website and associated digital properties, including newsletters, videos and social media programs. It reaches approximately 1.4 million readers a month via the internet at Forward.com and other websites. The quality of its journalism has been recognized with numerous awards for news and cultural coverage, editorials, and digital innovation.
$4,844,702 spent94% of program spendingYiddish media division: the second major program of the forward association is its yiddish publication, forverts. Updated regularly online, it is one of the few remaining publications in yiddish in the world and provides an indispensable service to its readers through its coverage of yiddish culture as well as news from israel, the united states and around the world. The website includes dozens of video features. Forverts reaches around 20,000 readers monthly via the internet at forward.com/yiddish.
$328,193 spent6% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,172,895.
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 $2.1M to $3.8M (+78%).
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: 2021 10% · 2022 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of The Forward Association Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Rachel Fishman Feddersen
CEO
Board chair
Alan Silberstein
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 43 funders, grant income rose $523k → $2.0M.
23 of 108 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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: $20M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Forward Fund Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money The Forward Association Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of The Forward Association Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 108 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
The Forward Association Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
51% 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 The Forward Association Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 23% · 2019 39% · 2020 38% · 2021 35% · 2022 31% · 2023 26% — 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
48% of The Forward Association Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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 Forward Association Inc draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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 Forward Association Inc's funding base is broadening — from 25 funders to 43 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding The Forward Association Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record — $10k federal, $50 state.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$10k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $50
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 The Forward Association 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 New York
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
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 29 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Forward Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Forward Association 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 Forward Association Inc?
- The Forward Association Inc (New York) receives grants from 108 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,657,354 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,325,910). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Forward Association Inc have?
- IRS filings report 108 organizations giving $12,657,354 in grants to The Forward Association Inc, 63 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Forward Association Inc?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,325,910 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Forward Association Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Forward Association →
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 108 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