GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

America Works USA

Washington, DC · EIN 45-2315353. Reported 41 grants totalling $42.2M to 32 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$242,000median reported grant
$42.2Mgranted, 2020-2023
33%of grantees funded again the next year
40%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 40% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 33% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $242,000. Half of what it reported fell between $50,000 and $500,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $13.9M. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$10,000 - $25,000
4 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
6 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
7 grants
$250,000 Or More
20 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Kansas Values InstituteLawrence, KS$16.7M332022
Democratic Governors AssociationWashington, DC$13.7M442023
Priorities USAWashington, DC$2,400,000112021
BlackpacWashington, DC$1,770,000112022
America VotesWashington, DC$1,350,000222023
New Jersey UnitedWoodbridge, NJ$1,075,000212021
Ab FoundationWashington, DC$902,000332023
Counteract FundWashington, DC$500,000112023
People for the American WayWashington, DC$500,000112021
Wisconsin Opportunity Coalition IncFitchburg, WI$500,000112021
Secure American RightsDalton, GA$450,000112022
Bluestem Foundation for Economic FreedomTopeka, KS$400,000112022
Preserve American ValuesDalton, GA$350,000112022
Nevada AllianceLas Vegas, NV$250,000112022
Family Friendly Action PacWashington, DC$230,000112022
Courier Newsroom IncNew York, NY$218,750112021
Mississippi Votes Action Fund CorporationJackson, MS$180,000112023
National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleJackson, MS$175,000112023
Planned Parenthood Votes South AtlanticRaleigh, NC$100,000112023
For Our Future Action FundWashington, DC$56,000112022
Boldly Forward ColoradoDenver, CO$50,000112020
Center for Innovative PolicyWashington, DC$50,000112023
New Mexico Families ForwardAlbuquerque, NM$50,000112021
Road to Michigan's FutureLansing, MI$50,000112020
Colorado for All 2023Denver, CO$25,000112022
Healey-Driscoll Inaugural CommitteeBoston, MA$25,000112022
Shapiro-Davis InaugurationPhiladelphia, PA$25,000112022
The 2023 Governors Inaugural FundSacramento, CA$25,000112022
Every Eligible AmericanWashington, DC$24,000112022
Michigan StrongLansing, MI$10,000112022
New Mexico InauguralAlbuquerque, NM$10,000112022
Wisconsin Values IncMilwaukee, WI$10,000112022

4 of 32 (12%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 11 of 32 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Civil Rights
6 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
International Affairs
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20204$645,000$90,000
202110$13.7M$500,000
202219$23.3M$56,000
20238$4,455,000$265,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

51% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

District of Columbia
$21.5M
Kansas
$17.1M
New Jersey
$1.1M
Georgia
$800K
Wisconsin
$510K
Mississippi
$355K
Nevada
$250K
New York
$219K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$21.5M
Lawrence, KS
$16.7M
Woodbridge, NJ
$1.1M
Dalton, GA
$800K
Fitchburg, WI
$500K
Topeka, KS
$400K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Sixteen Thirty Fund13 shared recipientsAmerica Votes9 shared recipientsOpen Society Action Fund Inc6 shared recipientsWay to Win Action Fund Inc6 shared recipientsHopewell Fund6 shared recipientsStrategic Victory Fund5 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $242,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in District of Columbia.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding public & societal benefit in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from America Works USA's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 8 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 2201 Wisconsin Ave Nw 320, Washington, DC, 20007.

EIN 45-2315353 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.