GrantmakersNorth Carolina

State Engagement Fund

Raleigh, NC · EIN 81-0865943. Reported 27 grants totalling $40.1M to 22 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$80,000median reported grant
$40.1Mgranted, 2021-2024
18%of grantees funded again the next year
87%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 State Engagement Fund, by its IRS classification it is an alliance or advocacy organization in public & societal benefit (NTEE W01).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 87% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.
  3. How much its list changes. 18% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $80,000. Half of what it reported fell between $59,500 and $1,000,000; the smallest was $500 and the largest $18.1M. 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.
Under $5,000
1 grant
$10,000 - $25,000
1 grant
$25,000 - $50,000
2 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
11 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
3 grants
$250,000 Or More
9 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
Strategic Victory FundRaleigh, NC$35.0M442024
Democracy AllianceWashington, DC$1,288,913112024
Pa Alliance ActionPhiladelphia, PA$1,125,000112022
National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleBaltimore, MD$1,000,000112022
Living United for Change in ArizonaPhoenix, AZ$269,000112021
Together Wisconsin Acts IncMilwaukee, WI$250,000112023
Action for LiberationDetroit, MI$157,000112021
Instituto PowerPhoenix, AZ$104,000112021
Alaska Federation of NativesAnchorage, AK$100,000112021
Beyond ImpactW Hollywood, CA$92,500112021
Worker PowerPhoenix, AZ$80,000112021
Apano StatewidePortland, OR$75,000112021
Community PartnersLos Angeles, CA$75,000212021
New American Leaders Action Fund IncNew York, NY$75,000112021
New York State Immigrant Action FundNew York, NY$75,000112021
North Dakota Native VoteBismarck, ND$75,000112021
One Apia NevadaLas Vegas, NV$75,000112021
We the People Action FundDetroit, MI$72,000112021
Our Voice Our Vote ArizonaPhoenix, AZ$59,500112021
Tides FoundationSan Francisco, CA$55,000112021
Arizona Coalition for ChangePhoenix, AZ$25,500222022
Mothering JusticeDetroit, MI$21,000112021

2 of 22 (9%) 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 18 of 22 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
9 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
International Affairs
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202119$3,485,000$75,000
20224$13.7M$1,062,500
20232$3,500,000$1,750,000
20242$19.4M$9,694,456

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

87% of its giving went to organizations in North Carolina. 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.

North Carolina
$35.0M
District of Columbia
$1.3M
Pennsylvania
$1.1M
Maryland
$1.0M
Arizona
$538K
Wisconsin
$250K
Michigan
$250K
California
$222K

Down to the city

Raleigh, NC
$35.0M
Washington, DC
$1.3M
Philadelphia, PA
$1.1M
Baltimore, MD
$1.0M
Phoenix, AZ
$538K
Milwaukee, WI
$250K

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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.

Tides Foundation12 shared recipientsAll Hands on Deck Network Inc12 shared recipientsTides Advocacy10 shared recipientsOpen Society Action Fund Inc9 shared recipientsAmerica Votes8 shared recipientsWay to Win Action Fund Inc8 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 $80,000 -- 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 North Carolina.
  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.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from State Engagement Fund'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 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 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: Po Box 388, Raleigh, NC, 27602.

EIN 81-0865943 · 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.