Legal identity
Donors Capital Fund, Inc. is a Maryland-incorporated tax-exempt grantmaking organization with an Alexandria, Virginia address. It operates alongside, but is legally distinct from, DonorsTrust. Its federal employer identification number is 54-1934032, compared with DonorsTrust's 52-2166327. Donors Capital Fund describes itself as a 501(c)(3) supporting organization under section 509(a)(3). Both institutions identify their connection; DonorsTrust lists it in its 2024 IRS Schedule R for related organizations. [1][3]
Activities and programs
Donors Capital Fund's 2024 tax-return program descriptions include management of donor-advised charitable funds and fiscal sponsorship of emerging organizations whose missions comply with the fund's charitable criteria. Under its fiscal-sponsorship process, the board evaluates proposed activities before accepting them as organizational programs. Its separate filings are necessary to determine its finances, grantmaking and sponsorship arrangements; these cannot simply be merged into DonorsTrust's Form 990. [2]
DonorsTrust's institutional history states that its Project Liberty nonprofit incubator moved under the Donors Capital Fund umbrella, after launching in 2011. The DonorsTrust 2024 Schedule R also separately lists Project Liberty, Inc. as a related organization. The legal relationship is established by the return; individual incubated programs require independent identification. [4][3]
Governing board and ties
The fund lists Lawson R. Bader as chair and president; its directors include Kimberly O. Dennis, Christie Herrera of the Philanthropy Roundtable, Brad Lips of the Atlas Network and Tracie Sharp, former State Policy Network CEO. Jeffrey Zysik serves as treasurer and Gregory Conko as secretary. Founding president Whitney Ball served historically on its board, as documented in a 2005 interview. These are shared governance relationships, not a claim that the listed outside institutions are subsidiaries. [1][5]
2024 financial and grant disclosures
IRS-derived fiscal 2024 data show approximately $7.4 million in revenue. Reported recipient entries include a $4,074,116 grant to DonorsTrust and payments to schools, legal and foreign-policy charities. DonorsTrust's own 2024 Schedule I separately lists grants to Donors Capital Fund of $7,500 and $59,057 for stated purposes. These are transfers between separate legal filers; they should be reported as directed and not automatically attributed to unknown final beneficiaries. [2][3]
Chronology and distinction
Both DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund received federal charitable recognition in 1999, according to public nonprofit-filing summaries. Whitney Ball's 2005 biography lists her on the Fund's board; DonorsTrust's 2011 Project Liberty initiative was subsequently associated with Donors Capital Fund. The contemporary governing board is recorded on the Fund's own website. No record reviewed establishes that a specific unnamed donor to either organization personally directed a particular outgoing grant. [2][5][4]
Documented connections
Links below lead to related records; the dated, source-qualified relationship layer supplies additional reciprocal connections.
Follow the connections into The Story
Explore the documented path to people and institutions appearing in the ten historical chapters.