Grantmakers › District of Columbia
Children's Defense Fund
Washington, DC · EIN 52-0895622. Reported 107 grants totalling $14.8M to 61 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Children's Defense Fund, the IRS classifies it under civil rights rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE R200) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 61 distinct organizations, with 15% 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.
- How much its list changes. 61% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $39,000. Half of what it reported fell between $17,000 and $128,892; the smallest was $5,250 and the largest $1,414,666. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National League of Cities Institute Inc | Washington, DC | $2,164,666 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Center for the Study of Social Policy | Washington, DC | $1,488,166 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Save the Children Federation Inc | Fairfield, CT | $1,344,666 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| New Yorkers for Children Inc | New York, NY | $1,320,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Unidosus | Washington, DC | $1,320,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Start Early | Chicago, IL | $948,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| James B Hunt JR Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy | Cary, NC | $856,666 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Anti-Recidivism Coalition | Los Angeles, CA | $549,680 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Connie Rice Institute for Urban Peace | Los Angeles, CA | $520,145 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Texans Care for Children Inc | Austin, TX | $513,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Youth Justice Coalition | Los Angeles, CA | $461,401 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Academias La Paz | Saint Paul, MN | $444,375 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Center for Public Policy Priorities | Austin, TX | $422,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Friendship Academy of the Arts | Minneapolis, MN | $416,581 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Arts for Healing and Justice Network | Los Angeles, CA | $382,909 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Clean and Healthy New York Inc | Albany, NY | $292,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Various Hats Inc | Austin, TX | $205,500 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Mississippi Center for Justice | Jackson, MS | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Policy Matters Ohio | Cleveland, OH | $85,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Science Museum of Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $84,556 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| East Texas Human Needs Network | Tyler, TX | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Panhandle Community Services | Amarillo, TX | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| United Way of Tarrant County | Fort Worth, TX | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Kids Win Missouri | Ballwin, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community Partners | Los Angeles, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc | Saint Paul, MN | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Hola Ohio | Painesville, OH | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment | Los Angeles, CA | $27,300 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Adelante Mujeres | Forest Grove, OR | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Avance Inc | Austin, TX | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Child Development Consortium of Los Angeles Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Chuckanut Health Foundation | Bellingham, WA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Erie Neighborhood House | Chicago, IL | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fayette Family Resource Network | Oak Hill, WV | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Oakland Public Education Fund | Oakland, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of Greater Knoxville Inc | Knoxville, TN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Texas Impact Education Fund | Austin, TX | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Tri-County Cradle-to-Career Collaborative | N Charleston, SC | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $22,246 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| La Union Del Pueblo Entero | Keene, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Project Vida Health Center | El Paso, TX | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition | Cleveland, OH | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Change the World Challenge Organization | Champlin, MN | $16,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development | Athens, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| United Way of Greater Cincinnati | Cincinnati, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| West Virginians for Affordablehealth Care | Charleston, WV | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Youth Represent Inc | New York, NY | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Provider Enrichment Services | Paducah, KY | $11,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Causewave Community Partners Inc | Rochester, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Roberts Family Development Center | Sacramento, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Saint Paul Public Schools | Saint Paul, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The City University of New York | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| El Colegio Charter School | Minneapolis, MN | $9,647 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Bethel Baptist Church East | Detroit, MI | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| New Faith Community | Rochester, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Peace United Church of Christ | Webster Graves, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Quinne Chapel AME Church | Chicago, IL | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Methodist Church of Green Trails | Chesterfield, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rebuilding the Village | Saint Paul, MN | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Why Cant We Make a Difference Foundation Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $6,186 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Faith Community Church | Greensboro, NC | $5,250 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
22 of 61 (36%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 47 of 61 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 21 | $1,309,882 | $23,000 |
| 2021 | 7 | $205,889 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 28 | $2,634,168 | $20,750 |
| 2023 | 17 | $3,604,092 | $177,663 |
| 2024 | 34 | $7,045,009 | $32,500 |
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
34% 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.
Down to the city
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $39,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in District of Columbia.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Children's Defense Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 34 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 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: 840 First Street Ne 300, Washington, DC, 20002.
EIN 52-0895622 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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