Grantmakers › District of Columbia

Animal Legal Defense Fund Inc

Washington, DC · EIN 94-2681680. Reported 45 grants totalling $4,622,313 to 32 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$60,000median reported grant
$4,622,313granted, 2020-2024
22%of grantees funded again the next year
24%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 Animal Legal Defense Fund Inc, by its IRS classification it is an alliance or advocacy organization in animal welfare (NTEE D012).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 24% 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. 22% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below 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 $60,000. Half of what it reported fell between $17,600 and $120,000; the smallest was $5,187 and the largest $1,103,042. 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
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
13 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
1 grant
$50,000 - $100,000
7 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
18 grants
$250,000 Or More
3 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
George Washington UniversityAshburn, VA$1,103,042112022
Lewis and Clark CollegePortland, OR$796,640332022
Association of Prosecuting Attorneys IncArlington, VA$505,000552024
National Council of Juvenile & Family Court JudgesReno, NV$315,000332024
State of Washington Attorney GeneralOlympia, WA$300,000222024
Virginia Office of the Attorney GeneralRichmond, VA$270,000222023
Benton County District AttorneyCorvallis, OR$240,000222022
Washington State Attorney GeneralOlympia, WA$150,000112021
University of ConnecticutStorrs, CT$141,070332024
Benton County District AttorneyCorvallis, OR$120,000112020
Virginia Office of Attorney GeneralRichmond, OR$120,000112020
National Council of Juvenile & Family Court JudgesReno, NV$100,000112020
University of DenverDenver, CO$60,000112020
Vancouver Humane Society & Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to aVancouver, WA$59,000112024
Mchenry County Department of HealthWoodstock, IL$50,945112022
North Carolina Central UniversityDurham, NC$50,000112021
University of DenverDenver, CO$50,000112021
Lewis & Clark Law SchoolPortland, OR$26,000112020
Bark Nation IncFerndale, MI$21,254112022
Hooved Animal Humane SocietyWoodstock, IL$17,695112022
Earth Island Institute IncBerkeley, CA$17,600112022
Sage Counseling IncMesa, AZ$15,000112022
Virginia Animal Fighting Task ForceRichmond, VA$13,856112024
Cascade County Sheriffs OfficeGreat Falls, MT$10,000112020
Center Valley Animal RescueQuilcene, WA$10,000112020
Deschutes County Sheriff's OfficeBend, OR$10,000112022
Godspeed Horse Hostel IncorporatedAmenia, NY$10,000112020
Whidbey Animals Improvement FoundationCoupeville, WA$10,000112022
Yuba County Sheriff's DepartmentMarysville, CA$10,000112021
The Wild Animal Sanctuary a Colorado Non-Profit CorporationKeenesburg, CO$9,600112021
Southern Illinois University- CarbondaleCarbondale, IL$5,424112021
University of ToledoToledo, OH$5,187112021

7 of 32 (22%) 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 14 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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 14 of 32 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.

Animal Welfare
7 orgs
Education
5 orgs
Crime & Legal
1 org
Environment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202010$913,300$67,500
202112$990,621$75,000
202212$1,815,536$36,099
20235$430,000$100,000
20246$472,856$79,500

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

41% of its giving went to organizations in Virginia. 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.

Virginia
$1.9M
Oregon
$1.3M
Washington
$529K
Nevada
$415K
Connecticut
$141K
Colorado
$120K
Illinois
$74K
North Carolina
$50K

Down to the city

Ashburn, VA
$1.1M
Portland, OR
$823K
Arlington, VA
$505K
Olympia, WA
$450K
Reno, NV
$415K
Corvallis, OR
$360K

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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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program6 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsGs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund4 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust4 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 $60,000 -- 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 Virginia.
  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 VirginiaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Animal Legal Defense Fund Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). 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 6 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: Po Box 96041, Washington, DC, 20077.

EIN 94-2681680 · 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 [email protected] and we will correct it.