GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Center for American Progress

Washington, DC · EIN 30-0126510. Reported 44 grants totalling $26.8M to 30 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

30organizations funded
$40,800median reported grant
$26.8Mgranted, 2021-2024
30%of grantees funded again the next year
71%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. For Center for American Progress, the IRS classifies it under civil rights rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE R05) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 30 distinct organizations, with 71% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
  3. How much its list changes. 30% 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 $40,800. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $613,750; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $6,549,896. 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.
$5,000 - $10,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
16 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
2 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
4 grants
$250,000 Or More
15 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
Center for American Progress Action FundWashington, DC$19.0M442024
Resources Legacy FundSacramento, CA$1,750,000112021
Center for Law and Social PolicyWashington, DC$1,227,500222022
Center on Budget and Policy PrioritiesWashington, DC$1,227,500222022
Georgetown UniversityWashington, DC$1,227,500222022
Partnership Project IncWashington, DC$850,000332024
Center for Earth Energy and DemocracyMinneapolis, MN$541,222332024
Partnership Project IncGreensboro, NC$350,000112021
West Harlem Environmental Action IncNew York, NY$110,000112022
Freedom for All Americans Education FundWashington, DC$75,000112021
Cleo Institute IncMiami, FL$69,000332024
Center for Community ChangeWashington, DC$55,000112021
Coming Clean IncBrattleboro, VT$50,000222024
Fund for the Center for Community ChangeWashington, DC$41,600112022
GreenlatinosBoulder, CO$40,000112023
Hester Street Collaborative IncNew York, NY$25,000112021
Aina MomonaKaunakakai, HI$22,500222022
Neo Philanthropy IncNew York, NY$20,000112021
Earth Echo International IncWashington, DC$15,000112021
Green 2 0Washington, DC$15,000112021
Healthy GulfNew Orleans, LA$15,000112021
Interfaith Power & LightOakland, CA$15,000112021
Native ConservancyCordova, AK$15,000112021
North American Marine Alliance IncGloucester, MA$15,000112021
Social Good Fund IncRichmond, CA$15,000112021
United Houma Nation IncHouma, LA$15,000112021
Uprose IncBrooklyn, NY$15,000112021
Bank of JapanWashington, DC$12,148112022
We ActSpring, TX$10,000112021
Foreign Policy for America FoundationWashington, DC$7,500112024

9 of 30 (30%) 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 the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 26 of 30 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.

Environment
12 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
4 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Crime & Legal
1 org
Civil Rights
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202123$10.9M$20,000
202210$7,122,498$250,000
20235$4,663,000$150,000
20246$4,148,722$135,611

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

88% 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
$23.7M
California
$1.8M
Minnesota
$541K
North Carolina
$350K
New York
$170K
Florida
$69K
Vermont
$50K
Colorado
$40K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$23.7M
Sacramento, CA
$1.8M
Minneapolis, MN
$541K
Greensboro, NC
$350K
New York, NY
$155K
Miami, FL
$69K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund18 shared recipientsTides Foundation14 shared recipientsAmalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc14 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc12 shared recipientsUnited States Energy Foundation11 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 $40,800 -- 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 environment in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding public & societal benefit in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Center for American Progress's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 5 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 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: 1333 H Street Nw 100E, Washington, DC, 20005.

EIN 30-0126510 · 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.