Maryland · Nonprofit
THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC
THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC (Maryland) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,523,595 to it, the largest being NCTA - THE INTERNET & TELEVISION ASSOCIATION ($1,210,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $3.6M
What The Free State Foundation Inc does
Mission
The free state foundation's primary purpose is to promote, through research and educational activities, understanding of free market, limited government, and rule of law principles at the federal level and in maryland. The foundation focuses on educating policymakers, opinion leaders, the press, and the general public concerning the need to eliminate unnecessary and counterproductive regulatory mandates, especially those applicable to the communications and other high-tech industries, and on reducing overly burdensome taxes, protecting individual rights, economic liberty, and property rights, and making government more effective, efficient, and accountable.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Communications law and reform project: the goal of this project, the foundation's largest, is to reform communications and internet law and policy to conform to the dynamic technological and competitive marketplace realities of the digital age. During 2024, the foundation published forty-six articles and scholarly studies as part of its "perspectives from fsf scholars" series. It published 140 separate blogs. Foundation scholars were published and quoted often in major national publications and two or three times weekly in leading trade press publications. Fsf also filed comments in agency rulemaking and policy proceedings, particularly on data caps on data broadband plans, the section 706 inquiry, the state of competition in the communications marketplace, and the prevention and elimination of digital discrimination. Fsf's sixteenth annual telecom policy conference, held on march 12, 2024, attracted over one hundred attendees and a diverse group of distinguished speakers from academia, senior government officials, public interest organizations, and industry. During cy 2024, fsf sponsored more than fifteen videos on telecommunications topics. All free state foundation events were…
$1,110,689 spent99% of program spendingMaryland government law and reform project: the goal of this project is to conduct research and educational activities that promote policies for maryland that are consistent with fiscal discipline and with a free market, less regulatory direction. During 2024, fsf published articles and commentaries relating to improving maryland's fiscal, economic, and regulatory policies, including its technology policies, and also to reforming its budget processes. Free state foundation scholars maintain a blog to include comments on maryland fiscal, economic, and regulatory issues. During 2024, several substantive blogs were published on these maryland policy issues.
$8,425 spent1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,119,114.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $3.3M to $3.7M (+13%).
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.
85% of THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $270k → $395k.
1 of 9 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 THE FREE STATE 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 FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 75% · 2019 47% · 2020 66% · 2021 49% · 2022 46% · 2023 43% — 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
60% of THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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 FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Maryland, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $45 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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 FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE FREE STATE 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 Maryland
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
37%
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 THE FREE STATE 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 FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC?
- THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC (Maryland) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,523,595 to it, the largest being NCTA - THE INTERNET & TELEVISION ASSOCIATION ($1,210,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $2,523,595 in grants to THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC?
- NCTA - THE INTERNET & TELEVISION ASSOCIATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,210,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FREE STATE FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Free State →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 9 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