Oregon · Nonprofit
WRITE AROUND PORTLAND
WRITE AROUND PORTLAND (Oregon) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,202,907 to it, the largest being Regional Arts & Culture Council ($282,664). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $496k
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $376k
What Write Around Portland does
Mission
Write Around Portland changes lives through the power of writing.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Writing workshops: in 2025, Write Around Portland worked on sustaining our partnerships with social service agencies and in our volunteer program. We held 26 writing groups for adults and youth in hospitals, schools, shelters, treatment centers, low-income housing buildings, senior centers and other health care and social service settings. Writing groups met for up to 10 weeks, and we offered these generative writing groups free of charge to more than 217 adults and young people experiencing financial insecurity or isolation. We also held 11 one-time writing circles in partnership with other non-profits and educational institutions to support their programming and in those workshops wrote with 73 participants. In total we held workshops in partnership with 25 different organizations to bring writing to places where people live, study and receive services. We provided journals, pens, snacks, bus tickets and accommodations to remove obstacles to participation. 92% of participants reported improvements in writing and listening skills and 87% of participants reported a decrease in isolation. We also held 14 sliding scale and market rate writing circles open to the general public and…
$253,026 spent$13,510 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $253,026.
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 2019 to 2020, from $255k to $395k (+55%).
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: 2024 17% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of WRITE AROUND PORTLAND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Christopher Mcdonald
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $40k → $191k.
6 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 WRITE AROUND PORTLAND’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
WRITE AROUND PORTLAND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
61% 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 WRITE AROUND PORTLAND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 38% · 2019 29% · 2020 27% · 2021 28% · 2022 22% · 2023 35% — 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
57% of WRITE AROUND PORTLAND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
73% of WRITE AROUND PORTLAND's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $323k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
WRITE AROUND PORTLAND runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,450 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding WRITE AROUND PORTLAND receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $144k on record — $10k federal, $134k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$129k
- PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT$5k
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 WRITE AROUND PORTLAND
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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WRITE AROUND PORTLAND: 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 WRITE AROUND PORTLAND?
- WRITE AROUND PORTLAND (Oregon) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,202,907 to it, the largest being Regional Arts & Culture Council ($282,664). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WRITE AROUND PORTLAND have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $1,202,907 in grants to WRITE AROUND PORTLAND, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WRITE AROUND PORTLAND?
- Regional Arts & Culture Council is the largest funder on record, with $282,664 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WRITE AROUND PORTLAND find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Write Around Portland →
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 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