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New York · Nonprofit

WOMEN FIRST INC

WOMEN FIRST INC (New York) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,189,313 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($737,179). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.3M
Funders on record
10
Grants received
$1.2M
Net assets
$18M
7/10 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 45%
01What it does

What Women First Inc does

Mission

Women first invests in grassroots initiatives driven by women in developing economies that sustainably advance their lives.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. See schedule ograntmaking program - women first provides grants and long-term partnership to small and emerging organizations led by women working towards gender equity in their own communities. Through our unique 3-stage approach, we partner with grantees for 6 years. Women first offers funding, capacity assessment and planning tools, capacity building resources, and networking opportunities. Grantee partners may also be awarded additional funding to navigate unexpected challenges and/or capitalize on urgent, time-bound opportunities.we work alongside our grantee partners over years to build organizational effectiveness, improve sustainability, create opportunities and change lives.since our founding in 1969, women first has funded more than 700 organizations, in over 95 countries. Women first believes that women-led organizations are best equipped to empower women and girls. To enhance its grant-making efforts, women first engages in events, briefing, training, workshops and non-governmental discussions at the united nations headquarters in new york as well as virtually through its consultative status with ecosoc (un's economic and social council) and its membership in…

    $2,162,726 spentof which $1,115,400 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,162,726.

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 ($418k) Expenses 100 ($1.1M) Net assets 100 ($19M)2018 Revenue 267 ($1.1M) Expenses 123 ($1.4M) Net assets 83 ($15M)2019 Revenue 536 ($2.2M) Expenses 134 ($1.5M) Net assets 95 ($18M)2020 Revenue 406 ($1.7M) Expenses 133 ($1.5M) Net assets 106 ($20M)2021 Revenue 410 ($1.7M) Expenses 133 ($1.5M) Net assets 115 ($21M)2022 Revenue 355 ($1.5M) Expenses 187 ($2.1M) Net assets 96 ($18M)2023 Revenue 438 ($1.8M) Expenses 251 ($2.8M) Net assets 98 ($18M)2024 Revenue 412 ($1.7M) Expenses 250 ($2.8M) Net assets 95 ($18M)2025 Revenue 308 ($1.3M) Expenses 252 ($2.8M) Net assets 95 ($18M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (308)Expenses (252)Net assets (95)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 2021 to 2022, from $21M to $18M (−17%).

$19M
$16M
$18M
$20M
$21M
$18M
$18M
$18M
$18M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

33% of WOMEN FIRST INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,680 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$688k
’17
−$250k
’18
$757k
’19
$226k
’20
$240k
’21
−$584k
’22
−$946k
’23
−$1.0M
’24
−$1.5M
’25
8.5
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

Emily Forhman

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed313124252525252018
Joined·+9+3+5+4+3+6+2+1
No longer listed·910443673
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $8k → $142k.

8 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 WOMEN FIRST INC’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

WOMEN FIRST INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

71% 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 WOMEN FIRST INC.

62%
largest funder
94%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 64% · 2020 100% · 2021 60% · 2022 86% · 2023 63% — 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

40% of WOMEN FIRST INC's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y

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

71% of WOMEN FIRST INC'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 $344k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from New York funders.

NY

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

’22
’23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $846k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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

WOMEN FIRST INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 798 international nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−116% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve8.5mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)15% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding WOMEN FIRST INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $77k on record.

State$77k
05
06
07
19
20
22
23
24
By state
  • NJ$77k
  • FL$210
  • DE$45

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like WOMEN FIRST INC

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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 9%Fundraising 13%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

37%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 25 states

NH
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
OH
PA
NJ
RI
CA
UT
VA
MD
NM
TN
NC
SC
HI
OK
AL
GA
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WOMEN FIRST INC: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 WOMEN FIRST INC?
WOMEN FIRST INC (New York) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,189,313 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($737,179). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does WOMEN FIRST INC have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,189,313 in grants to WOMEN FIRST INC, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WOMEN FIRST INC?
NEW VENTURE FUND is the largest funder on record, with $737,179 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WOMEN FIRST INC 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.

Play a game about who funds Women First →

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 10 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