Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION
WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,014,679 to it, the largest being HOPEWELL FUND ($1,604,654). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2021
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $0
What We the Action Foundation does
Mission
We the Action Foundation (wtaf) is a charitable organization that promotes pro bono work by lawyers on behalf of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofits and other organizations carrying out charitable and educational work. A 2017 aba study found 81% of attorneys believe pro bono service is important, but only 45% said they were likely to do it themselves. Meanwhile, charitable and educational organizations pursuing critical missions struggle to find legal support. Traditional tools for connecting lawyers to nonprofits are outdated and fail to fully serve evolving needs of nonprofits and the lawyers who might serve them. Wtaf bridges this gap by supporting, through its own work and restricted grantmaking, the use of technology to match volunteer lawyers with charitable and educational organizations and by promoting pro bono service by lawyers.
As stated on its FY2021 Form 990.
Program
Wtaf raised in excess of $1.5 million in donations from private organizations to support its mission.wtaf made restricted grants to a nonprofit organization that leverage technology to match volunteer lawyers with charitable and educational organizations and that recruit, promote, and manage pro bono service by lawyers.
The first program described on its most recent Form 990, which lists programs largest first by expense.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $288k to $0 (−100%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 2 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
2020 → 2022: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $1.7M → $25.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% 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 THE ACTION 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
WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
98% 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 THE ACTION FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 97% · 2021 100% · 2022 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.
Where its funders are
98% of WE THE ACTION 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 $50k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M 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.
Organizations like WE THE ACTION 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
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Wetheaction · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WE THE ACTION 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 THE ACTION FOUNDATION?
- WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,014,679 to it, the largest being HOPEWELL FUND ($1,604,654). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $3,014,679 in grants to WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION.
- Who is the largest funder of WE THE ACTION FOUNDATION?
- HOPEWELL FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,604,654 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WE THE ACTION 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 FY2021 (financials across 2020–2021), and the filings of 4 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