Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION
WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $288,783 to it, the largest being CORNELIA T BAILEY CHARITABLE TRUST ($75,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $394k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $289k
- Net assets
- $-62437
What Washington Architectural Foundation does
Mission
To educate the public about architecture and the built environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Dackids - dackids includes programs such as monthly kids' programs, tools of the trade, architectural walking tours, archi-builder studio, dackids summer camp and design like a girl mentoring program. These programs teach middle-schoolers skills in drawing, model-making, site design, sustainability, and theater set design. These programs also expose kids to new perspectives about their community. The design like a girl mentoring program enhances stem skills and introduces girls to female role models in architecture, engineering and construction.
$137,259 spent$42,387 earned by the program44% of program spendingArchitecture in schools - exposing dc students to the architecture and design of the build environment. This program is temporarily suspended.barbara g. Laurie scholarship program - college scholarship for architecture students from dc.
$137,258 spentof which $15,000 as grants44% of program spendingPublic programming - includes exhibitions, tours, film screenings, and lectures that underscore the importance of public engagement with architecture. These programs help community members become better stewards of the community's built resources.
$27,500 spent$4,275 earned by the program9% of program spendingCanstruction - teams of architects build fantastic structures designed entirely out of canned and boxed food. The display allowed the public and the design community to come together during the thanksgiving holiday to draw attention to food insecurity in the washington dc area.
$7,816 spent$12,950 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $309,833.
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 $336k to $145k (−57%).
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: 2018 11% · 2019 10% · 2020 17% · 2021 10% · 2022 42% · 2023 38% · 2024 33% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
119% of WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Mary Fitch
Executive director
Board chair
Jeffrey Kerr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $18k → $22k.
2 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION’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
WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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 51% · 2018 61% · 2019 50% · 2020 32% · 2021 45% · 2022 52% · 2023 46% — 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
64% of WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION draws 77% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION: 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 WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION?
- WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $288,783 to it, the largest being CORNELIA T BAILEY CHARITABLE TRUST ($75,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $288,783 in grants to WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION?
- CORNELIA T BAILEY CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $75,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION 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.
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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing