New York · Nonprofit
WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION
WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,313,870 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($2,532,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What We Are Family Foundation does
Mission
The We Are Family Foundation celebrates the vision of a global family by creating and supporting programs that inspire and educate people about mutual respect, understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Youth to the table problems that span generations require leadership that does too. That is the guiding statement We Are Family Foundation (waff) followed in creating youth to the table (yttt). As a transformative leader in the youth leadership space, waff created yttt to provide this generation with seatsat c-suite level decision-making tables around the world to share theirunique perspectives in critical conversations. Waff works with organizations and corporate partners to curate youth-held positions/appointees to participate in the hard conversations and critical decisions of our time. In 2024, waff youth delegates from 13 countries on six continents participated in five major global convenings: world economic forum 24 (wef24) in davos, switzerland; united nations general assembly 79 (unga79) in new york city; united nations climate change conference 16 (biodiversity conference) in cali, colombia; unfccc 29 (cop29) in baku, azerbaijan; and unesco's global forum against racism and discrimination in barcelona, spain. Their participation included consulting, speaking, facilitating, and one-on-one collaborations with high-level leaders across both public and private sectors to…
$675,362 spent44% of program spendingYouth to the front fund: as a leader in the youth space, We Are Family Foundation (waff) created the youth to the front fund (yttff) in 2020 to fund and support bipoc (black, indigenous, people of color) and bipoc-ally youth activists, youth-led organizations, projects, innovations, and creative solutions that are at the forefront of fighting systemic racism, inequity, and injustice in the united states and around the world. We call them "frontliners." since its inception, yttff has funded the transformative work of frontliners under the age of 30 from 51 countries across six continents and 21 u.s. States, spanning sectors including education reform, disability justice, technology, public advocacy, environmental justice, health, refugee support, and lgbtq+ rights. To date, 110 projects have received funding and support, advancing work in areas such as indigenous knowledge protection, climate restoration, holistic healing, food justice, policy reform, and anti-racism in schools. U.s.-based projects represent communities in arizona, california, colorado, florida, georgia, illinois, louisiana, maryland, massachusetts, minnesota, missouri, new jersey, new mexico, new york, oregon,…
$510,192 spentof which $285,150 as grants33% of program spendingThree dot dash three dot dash, a flagship program of We Are Family Foundation, empowers teenagers who identify urgent problems in their communities and design unique solutions to address them. Each participant is supported through an annual summit where they build skills, connect with exceptional leaders, and collaborate with peers, followed by a yearlong mentorship with an expert in their field. Launched in 2008, the program hosted 11 in-person summits in new york city before pivoting online during the covid-19 pandemic to deliver three virtual summits between 2020 and 2022. In 2024, waff relaunched three dot dash, beginning with expanded outreach and applications that significantly increased the global applicant pool. The 2025 summit, held for the first time outside of the united states in stockholm, sweden, was designed in 2024 with a refreshed curriculum, a diverse roster of speakers, and streamlined application and review systems to improve efficiency and accessibility.
$224,791 spent15% of program spendingOther
$120,384 spent8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,530,729.
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 $2.6M (+71%).
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: 2020 9% · 2021 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Nile Rodgers
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 13 funders, grant income rose $733k → $962k.
11 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
83% 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 WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 73% · 2019 81% · 2020 62% · 2021 28% · 2022 34% · 2023 33% — 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
36% of WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
78% of WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.2M that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside New York, across 13 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.1M 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
WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 978 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 978 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WE ARE FAMILY 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WE ARE FAMILY 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 WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION?
- WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,313,870 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($2,532,500). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $5,313,870 in grants to WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,532,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WE ARE FAMILY FOUNDATION 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.
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 35 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