GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Detention Watch Network

Washington, DC · EIN 83-3874583. Reported 58 grants totalling $997,897 to 37 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

37organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$997,897granted, 2021-2024
25%of grantees funded again the next year
14%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 Detention Watch Network, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P84) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 37 distinct organizations, with 14% 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. 25% 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 $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,167 and the largest $66,500. 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
12 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
36 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
2 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
Alliance for Global JusticeTucson, AZ$141,600442024
Inland Congregation United for Change Sponsoring Committee IncSn Bernrdno, CA$67,000322022
Adelante Alabama Worker CenterBirmingham, AL$50,000112021
Immigrant Services and Legal AdvocacyNew Orleans, LA$46,500332024
Organized Communities Against DeportationsChicago, IL$46,250222022
Free Migration ProjectPhiladelphia, PA$46,000222023
Interfaith Movement for Human IntegrityOakland, CA$44,000332023
JuntosPhiladelphia, PA$43,700222024
Common FoundationBoulder, CO$43,500222024
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational FundLos Angeles, CA$39,500222023
Grassroots Leadership IncAustin, TX$31,600222022
Center for Civic PolicyAlbuquerque, NM$31,500222024
Park Avenue Baptist Church IncorporatedAtlanta, GA$31,000222024
Center for Transformative ActionIthaca, NY$27,000222023
Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration IcomMinneapolis, MN$27,000222024
Families for Freedom IncNew York, NY$26,000222022
New Venture FundWashington, DC$25,000112021
Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media & EducationPortland, OR$20,167212022
Home Is Here NolaNew Orleans, LA$20,000112024
Immigrant Action Alliance IncKey Largo, FL$17,000112023
MN8Saint Paul, MN$16,500112022
First Friends of New Jersey and New YorkKearny, NJ$15,000112024
Social Good Fund IncRichmond, CA$15,000112023
The Translatin CoalitionLos Angeles, CA$15,000112024
El Refugio Ministry IncDecatur, GA$13,000112022
Calvary Episcopal Church Foundation IncRichmond, TX$10,000112023
Friends of Miami-Dade DetaineesHollywood, FL$10,000112022
National Network for Immigrant & Refugee RightsOakland, CA$10,000112023
Neo Philanthropy IncNew York, NY$10,000112022
United We Dream Network IncWashington, DC$8,138112021
Centro De Trabajadores Unidos United Workers CenterChicago, IL$8,000112022
Community PartnersLos Angeles, CA$8,000112022
St Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin AmericaSt Louis, MO$8,000112022
Center for Community ChangeWashington, DC$7,637112021
Mijente Support CommitteePhoenix, AZ$7,138112021
Equality Alliance of San Diego CountySan Diego, CA$7,000112023
Organized Poder LLCTucson, AZ$5,167112022

15 of 37 (41%) 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.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 25 of 37 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
7 orgs
Human Services
4 orgs
International Affairs
2 orgs
Environment
2 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
2 orgs
Religion
2 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Employment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202113$259,113$16,000
202223$412,784$13,000
202312$171,000$15,000
202410$155,000$15,000

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

21% of its giving went to organizations in California. 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.

California
$206K
Arizona
$154K
Pennsylvania
$90K
Louisiana
$66K
New York
$63K
Illinois
$54K
Alabama
$50K
Georgia
$44K

Down to the city

Tucson, AZ
$147K
Philadelphia, PA
$90K
Sn Bernrdno, CA
$67K
New Orleans, LA
$66K
Los Angeles, CA
$62K
Chicago, IL
$54K

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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.

Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc15 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund14 shared recipientsTides Foundation13 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program13 shared recipientsNeo Philanthropy Inc13 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc13 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 $15,000 -- 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 California.
  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 human services in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding environment in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Detention Watch Network'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 10 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: 1730 Rhode Island Ave 711, Washington, DC, 20036.

EIN 83-3874583 · 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.