Grantmakers › District of Columbia

Power to Decide

Washington, DC · EIN 52-1974611. Reported 48 grants totalling $2,370,930 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$2,370,930granted, 2021-2025
78%of grantees funded again the next year
32%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 Power to Decide, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P300) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 32% 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. 78% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $60,279; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $418,972. 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
33 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
1 grant
$50,000 - $100,000
8 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
4 grants
$250,000 Or More
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
Child Trends IncorporatedRockville, MD$759,413332025
Myhealthed IncChapel Hill, NC$693,027552025
Appalshop IncWhitesburg, KY$318,600442024
Kentucky Health Justice Network IncLouisville, KY$117,642222022
University of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA$75,098222025
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical Univ Foundation IncTallahassee, FL$46,230322025
Compassion Outreach of AmericaNew Orleans, LA$36,230222025
I Be Black GirlOmaha, NE$26,000222025
Asian Health ServicesOakland, CA$25,000222025
Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County IncTampa, FL$25,000222025
The University of Texas at ArlingtonArlington, TX$25,000222025
Reuben V Anderson Center for JusticeTougaloo, MS$21,230112024
The University of the Virgin IslandsSt Thomas, VI$21,230112024
Tuskegee UniversityTuskegee Institute, AL$21,230112024
Board of Regents of the University of NebraskaLincoln, NE$20,000222022
Cardea ServicesSeattle, WA$20,000222022
Hawaii Youth Services NetworkHonolulu, HI$20,000222022
Henry Ford Health SystemDetroit, MI$20,000222022
Honestly IncOklahoma City, OK$20,000222022
James Madison UniversityHarrisonburg, VA$20,000222022
Womens Birth & Wellness Center IncRaleigh, NC$20,000222022
Dillard UniversityNew Orleans, LA$10,000112024
United Way of Central New York IncSyracuse, NY$10,000112021

18 of 23 (78%) 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.

It also reported 3 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 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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 18 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Health Care
5 orgs
Human Services
4 orgs
Education
4 orgs
Civil Rights
2 orgs
Arts & Culture
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202111$436,310$10,000
202210$365,510$10,000
20233$294,702$105,600
202415$683,466$21,230
20259$590,942$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

32% of its giving went to organizations in Maryland. 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.

Maryland
$759K
North Carolina
$713K
Kentucky
$436K
California
$100K
Florida
$71K
Louisiana
$46K
Nebraska
$46K
Texas
$25K

Down to the city

Rockville, MD
$759K
Chapel Hill, NC
$693K
Whitesburg, KY
$319K
Louisville, KY
$118K
San Francisco, CA
$75K
Tallahassee, FL
$46K

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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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc12 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program10 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust8 shared recipientsCharities Aid Foundation America8 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 Maryland.
  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 education in North CarolinaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Power to Decide's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 9 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: 1015 15TH St Nw 1225, Washington, DC, 20005.

EIN 52-1974611 · 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.

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