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Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

THE LUGAR CENTER

THE LUGAR CENTER (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,435,771 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($950,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2023
$8k
Funders on record
11
Grants received
$2.4M
Net assets
$246k
5/11 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What The Lugar Center does

Mission

The Lugar Center is dedicated to proposing solutions to global problems that will define the 21st century.

As stated on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Bipartisan governance - tlc is dedicated to incentivizing public officials to put governance first, fostering more meaningful policy debates, encouraging civility in political speech, and promoting structural reforms that reduce partisanship. Through research and commentary, tlc seeks to encourage bipartisanship among elected officials and inform the public on the negative impact of partisanship in our government. Tlc develops and promotes proposals designed to increase national unity and mitigate the effects of partisanship. Tlc made significant progress in our bipartisan governance program in 2023, including releasing our bipartisan index (bpi) rankings for 2023 - the first year of the current 118th congress, maintaining active commentary through blogs, op-eds, and other media coverage, and working with other groups, such as the project on government oversight, to support the legislative and executive branches in governing effectively.

    $45,725 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $45,725.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.2M) Expenses 100 ($510k) Net assets 100 ($856k)2018 Revenue 36 ($437k) Expenses 153 ($779k) Net assets 60 ($514k)2019 Revenue 51 ($622k) Expenses 132 ($671k) Net assets 54 ($465k)2020 Revenue 27 ($331k) Expenses 88 ($447k) Net assets 40 ($339k)2021 Revenue 8 ($100k) Expenses 28 ($145k) Net assets 35 ($301k)2022 Revenue 8 ($97k) Expenses 17 ($89k) Net assets 36 ($310k)2023 Revenue 1 ($8k) Expenses 16 ($82k) Net assets 29 ($246k)
2017201820192020202120222023
Revenue (1)Expenses (16)Net assets (29)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $856k to $516k (−40%).

$856k
$516k
$475k
$347k
$303k
$312k
$251k
2017201820192020202120222023
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

98% of THE LUGAR CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (65% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 26,798 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$714k
’17
−$343k
’18
−$49k
’19
−$116k
’20
−$45k
’21
$9k
’22
−$74k
’23
2.2
months of
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

John H Lugar

Executive director and treasurer

As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.

2017201820192020
Listed6777
Joined·+2+1+0
No longer listed·110
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 6 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $1.2M → $31.

5 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 LUGAR CENTER’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 LUGAR CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

39%
largest funder
86%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 57% · 2019 47% · 2020 99% · 2021 50% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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

9% of THE LUGAR CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 LUGAR CENTER draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.

WA
PA
NJ
CA
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’21
’22
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $369k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

THE LUGAR CENTER's revenue fell 99% between 2017 and 2023.

Operating margin−906% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−57% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,386 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2023

Organizations like THE LUGAR CENTER

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

43%

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 LUGAR CENTER: 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.

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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 LUGAR CENTER?
THE LUGAR CENTER (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,435,771 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($950,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does THE LUGAR CENTER have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $2,435,771 in grants to THE LUGAR CENTER, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE LUGAR CENTER?
THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $950,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE LUGAR CENTER 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 Lugar Center →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 11 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