Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE
WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,304,405 to it, the largest being Lumina Foundation for Education Inc ($2,660,750). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $9.3M
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Washington Monthly Institute does
Mission
Dedicated to increasing public knowledge through washington monthly magazine and website www.washingtonmonthly.com published since 1969, the print magazine is the country's most important watchdog of american government, focusing on what's wrong and how to fix it.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
While small local newspapers and big digital outlets alike have continued to downsize, the washington monthly's media outlet is celebrating its 56th year of publication, still doing what fewer and fewer publications do today: telling fascinating, deeply reported groundbreaking stories about the problems preventing us from moving forward as a nation and providing the intellectual tools necessary to reform our government institutions and enhance their performance. No other outlet does a better job of looking at the ideas and characters that animate america's government, politics, and culture. Among the topics covered during 2024 again were: what to do about the increasing dominance of corporate goliaths; saving local journalism; reforming federal bureaucracies; congress and electoral reform; the people and ideas reshaping higher education; and vote-by-mail (a policy we have long advocated and championed);. The Washington Monthly Institute's work garnered national attention - in the media, on social media, and on capitol hill, where we hand-deliver three copies of each issue of our print magazine. We also continue to publish the widely acclaimed college guide and rankings, featuring…
$1,192,342 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,192,342.
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 2021 to 2022, from $1.5M to $2.5M (+61%).
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 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Board chair
Nicholas Lemann
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 12 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $734k → $753k.
10 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 MONTHLY INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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 34% · 2018 41% · 2019 29% · 2020 40% · 2021 28% · 2022 37% · 2023 46% — 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
21% of WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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 MONTHLY INSTITUTE draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $878k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 MONTHLY INSTITUTE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 174 social science nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 174 social science nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Washington Monthly LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE: 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 MONTHLY INSTITUTE?
- WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,304,405 to it, the largest being Lumina Foundation for Education Inc ($2,660,750). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $9,304,405 in grants to WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE?
- Lumina Foundation for Education Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,660,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WASHINGTON MONTHLY INSTITUTE 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 Washington Monthly Institute →
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 40 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