New York · Nonprofit
Womens Sports Foundation
Womens Sports Foundation (New York) receives grants from 121 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,963,126 to it, the largest being SUC TUA EVELYN DAVIS FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 121
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $17M
What Womens Sports Foundation does
Mission
We are a powerful voice and catalyst for ensuring all girls and women have equal access to physical activity and sports and the benefits they provide.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Community impact: engagement & retention of girls in sports is a top priority. We provide tools and technical assistance to support coaches, parents, and community leaders to strengthen recruitment, engagement & quality of programming for girls. Our sports 4 life program that helps increase participation & retention of girls from underresourced communities in developmental youth sports programs. Our digital platform - we play interactive - is a resource for coaches to help girls discover joy from playing sports. Travel and training fund provides women athletes with potential to be elite with funding to reduce their financial obstacles. Athlete ambassador program engages elite athletes as role models to inspire girls.
$3,157,452 spentof which $861,050 as grants56% of program spendingAdvocacy: wsf has been serving as the collective voice for girls and women since its inception. Protecting title ix, promoting gender equity, fighting for equal pay, increased media coverage and investment in women's sports, and empowering others to take action are the cornerstones of our work. We collaborate with partners to advocate at the national, state, and grassroots levels.
$1,572,238 spentof which $144,870 as grants28% of program spendingResearch: serves as a springboard for our work. Wsf has a comprehensive portfolio of close to 100 signature research projects. Our evidence-based public interest research on girls and women in sports and physical activity anchors all of our policy outreach and fuels our impact initiatives. It fosters public discourse on the vital importance of sport participation for the health and well-being of girls, leadership opportunities for women, and deib in sports. Data combined with experiences on the ground help to identify best practices and inform our programming. Wsf conducts rigorous evaluations to assess impact against clearly defined benchmarks.
$907,115 spent16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,636,805.
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 2023 to 2024, from $10M to $18M (+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: 2021 11% · 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Womens Sports Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (10% 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.
Chief executive
Danette Leighton
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 50 funders, grant income rose $323k → $1.6M.
31 of 121 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $25k from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Pac-12 Conference). These are real filings, and they are not money Womens Sports Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Womens Sports Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 121 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
Womens Sports Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
53% 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 Womens Sports Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 25% · 2019 17% · 2020 26% · 2021 17% · 2022 26% · 2023 10% — 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 Womens Sports Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
Womens Sports Foundation draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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
Womens Sports Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 303 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 303 recreation & sports nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like Womens Sports 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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 40 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Womens Sports 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 Womens Sports Foundation?
- Womens Sports Foundation (New York) receives grants from 121 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,963,126 to it, the largest being SUC TUA EVELYN DAVIS FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Womens Sports Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 121 organizations giving $11,963,126 in grants to Womens Sports Foundation, 58 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Womens Sports Foundation?
- SUC TUA EVELYN DAVIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Womens Sports 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 121 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