Washington Progress Fund
Seattle, WA · EIN 26-2868934. Reported 77 grants totalling $4,947,997 to 39 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, 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 Washington Progress Fund, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
- How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 16% 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. 62% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 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 $50,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $76,666; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $425,170. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network | Yakima, WA | $775,170 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Latino Community Fund of Washingtonstate | Seattle, WA | $434,850 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Fuse Innovation Fund | Seattle, WA | $418,334 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| La CASA Hogar | Yakima, WA | $295,250 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Nuestra CASA | Sunnyside, WA | $295,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Washington Bus Education Fund | Seattle, WA | $270,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Washington State Budget and Policy Center | Seattle, WA | $257,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lavender Rights Project | Seattle, WA | $240,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Washington Community Action Network Education & Research Fund | Seattle, WA | $213,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Economic Opportunity Institute | Seattle, WA | $206,666 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Equity in Education Coalition | Seattle, WA | $205,009 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Puget Sound Sage | Seattle, WA | $153,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Na Ah Illahee Fund | Seattle, WA | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Native Action Network | Seattle, WA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pro-Choice Washington Foundation | Seattle, WA | $100,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Rvc Seattle | Seattle, WA | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Win Win Network | Seattle, WA | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Asian Counseling and Referral Service | Seattle, WA | $77,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Pacific County Voices Uniting | South Bend, WA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Invest in Wa Now | Seattle, WA | $51,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Balance Our Tax Code | Seattle, WA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Roosevelt Institute | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| State Innovation Exchange | Madison, WI | $41,168 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Fair Work Center | Seattle, WA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rural Peoples Platform | Winthrop, WA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Spokane County Against Racism | Spokane, WA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Balance Our Tax Code | Seattle, WA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Equal Rights Wa Education & Engagement | Seattle, WA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Carl Maxey Center | Spokane, WA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Independent Feature Project Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Eritrean Association in Greater Seattle | Seattle, WA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| No on 2109 Committee | Seattle, WA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Solid Ground Washington | Seattle, WA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Neo Philanthropy Inc | New York, NY | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sightline Institute | Seattle, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Washington Conservation Action Education Fund | Seattle, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Washington Community Alliance | Bellingham, WA | $12,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community for the Advancement of Family Education | Wenatchee, WA | $5,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Oneamerica | Seattle, WA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
21 of 39 (54%) 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.
- Latino Community Fund
General operating and capacity building - Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
Unemployment benefits project - Wa State Budget & Policy Center
General operating and technical assistance - Fuse Innovation Fund
Communications and organizing - Economic Opportunity Institute
Policy research and coordination - Pro-Choice Washington Foundation
General Support, Capacity Building
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 32 of 39 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 | $661,750 | $35,000 |
| 2022 | 25 | $1,431,777 | $50,000 |
| 2023 | 16 | $1,091,500 | $32,500 |
| 2024 | 17 | $1,762,970 | $55,000 |
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
97% of its giving went to organizations in Washington. 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
Find more funders like Washington Progress Fund
We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.
No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.
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 $50,000 -- 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 Washington.
- 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 Washington Progress 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 13 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 4 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: 1424 11TH Ave Ste 400, Seattle, WA, 98122.
EIN 26-2868934 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.