Alabama Forward
Montgomery, AL · EIN 85-3077637. Reported 81 grants totalling $2,830,006 to 36 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 Alabama Forward, the IRS classifies it under civil rights rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE R02) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 36 distinct organizations, with 10% 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. 89% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 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 $30,600. Half of what it reported fell between $20,700 and $40,061; the smallest was $7,425 and the largest $139,606. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transform Alabama | Talladega, AL | $283,667 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Hometown Organizing Project | Montevallo, AL | $215,661 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Hispanic and Immigrant Center of | Birmingham, AL | $196,747 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Alabama Justice Initiative | Birmingham, AL | $168,250 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | Baltimore, MD | $167,125 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Gasp | Birmingham, AL | $146,100 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Black Belt Community Foundation Inc | Selma, AL | $138,900 | 5 | 4 | 2024 |
| Sustainable Water Energy and Economic Transition in Alabama | Birmingham, AL | $132,860 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| United Women of Color | Capshaw, AL | $122,780 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Faith in Action Alabama | Birmingham, AL | $117,070 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice | Irondale, AL | $109,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Greater Birmingham Ministries Inc | Birmingham, AL | $87,675 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Project Say Something | Florence, AL | $81,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alabama International Education & Economic Partnership | Montgomery, AL | $77,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alabama Rivers Alliance Inc | Birmingham, AL | $77,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Ordinary People Society Inc | Dothan, AL | $65,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bay Area Womens Coalition LLC | Mobile, AL | $61,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alabama Arise | Montgomery, AL | $60,750 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Dubois Institute for Entrepreneurship | Dothan, AL | $46,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Inc | Washington, DC | $45,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Planned Parenthood Southeast Inc | Atlanta, GA | $43,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Metro Montgomery County NAACP Unit #5046 | Montgomery, AL | $40,650 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Fortitude Foundation | Montgomery, AL | $39,450 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alabama Poverty Project Incorporated | Birmingham, AL | $39,125 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| South Alabama Black Women's Roundtable (fiscal Sponsor the Dubois Institut | Dothan, AL | $37,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Church Women United | Montgomery, AL | $37,150 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Friends of West-End | Birmingham, AL | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Omna Inc | Huntsville, AL | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stand-Up Mobile a Blueprint for US | Mobile, AL | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jobs to Move America | Los Angeles, CA | $22,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hale County Community Enrichment Society | Greensboro, AL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Health and Wellness Educational Center | Livingston, AL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Union Theological Seminary | New York, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Meow Cares | Montgomery, AL | $11,550 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Community Awareness and Prevention Programs | Butler, AL | $9,646 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Energy Alabama | Huntsville, AL | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
23 of 36 (64%) 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.
- Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama
2023 ANNUAL TABLE MEETING TRAVEL STIPEND2023 MEMBER CAPACITY BUILDING SUBGRANT2023 SHAKE THE FIELD SUBGRANT2023 MEMBER ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUBGRANT2023 STATEWIDE VOTER REGISTRATION & MOBILIZATION PROJECT SUBGRANT2023 STRONGHOLD COUNTIES FIELD PLAN PROJECT SUBGRANT - Transform Alabama
2023 ANNUAL TABLE MEETING TRAVEL STIPEND2023 EMERGING GROWTH COUNTIES FIELD PLAN PROJECT SUBGRANT2023 MEMBER ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUBGRANT2023 MUNICIPAL ELECTION MOBILIZATION PLAN - MONTGOMERY 2023 MUNICIPAL ELECTION MOBILIZATION PLAN - TALLADEGA2023 STRONGHOLD COUNTIES FIELD PLAN PROJECT SUBGRANTDN2 FESTIVAL COMMUNITY OUTREACH STIPENDFIELD & DATA WORKING GROUP MINI GRANTPOWER ON THE LINE TOWN HALL STIPEND - Faith in Action Alabama
2023 ANNUAL TABLE MEETING TRAVEL STIPEND2023 EMERGING GROWTH COUNTIES FIELD PLAN PROJECT SUBGRANT2023 EMERGING GROWTH COUNTIES FILED PLAN PROJECT SUBGRANT2023 MEMBER CAPACITY BUILDING SUBGRANT - People's Budget Birmingham (fiscal Sponsor Sweet Alabama)
2023 ANNUAL TABLE MEETING TRAVEL STIPEND2023 MEMBER CAPACITY BUILDING SUBGRANT2023 MEMBER ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUBGRANT - Hometown Organizing Project
SUMMER 2021 COMMUNITY MAPPING/FAIR DISTRICTING SUBGRANT - VOTER ENGAGEMENT RE: 2021 AL REDISTRICTING PROCESS - Alabama Justice Initiative
2023 ANNUAL TABLE MEETING TRAVEL STIPEND2023 MEMBER CAPACITY BUILDING SUBGRANT2023 SHAKE THE FIELD SUBGRANT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 29 of 36 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | $306,647 | $30,750 |
| 2022 | 28 | $757,046 | $22,600 |
| 2023 | 19 | $742,676 | $35,000 |
| 2024 | 25 | $1,023,637 | $30,650 |
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
90% of its giving went to organizations in Alabama. 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 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.
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 $30,600 -- 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 Alabama.
- 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 Alabama Forward's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). 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 26 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: 3066 Zelda Road Pmb 231, Montgomery, AL, 36106.
EIN 85-3077637 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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