How much of Indivisible’s revenue in 2023 came from small-dollar donations versus foundations?
Executive summary
Indivisible’s public filings and reporting show a 2023 combined revenue in the low‑to‑mid tens of millions and make clear the organization is funded by a mix of small individual donations, larger individual gifts, and foundation grants, but the sources provided do not publish a clean, single line item that isolates “small‑dollar” receipts for 2023 alone [1] [2] [3]. What can be said with confidence from the available documents: Indivisible reported roughly $12.5 million in total revenue in 2023 and $7.8 million in direct contributions, and disclosed at least a single foundation grant of about $3.0 million that year — which establishes a material role for foundations even as Indivisible emphasizes small‑dollar fundraising [1] [3].
1. How Indivisible reports its 2023 revenues — the headline numbers
Indivisible’s widely cited financial summary shows combined reported revenue across its entities of about $12.5 million in 2023, with $7.8 million categorized as “direct contributions,” plus roughly $3.6 million in management fees and about $993,117 in other administrative income, per the organization’s 2023 filings summarized by InfluenceWatch and the public annual report [1] [3]. The group’s own annual materials also break out fundraising for the two main arms—Indivisible Civics (~$4.9M) and Indivisible Project (~$6.5M)—but those figures are presented as entity totals and do not in themselves parse small‑dollar vs. foundation sources [3].
2. What “small‑dollar” means inside Indivisible’s fundraising philosophy
Indivisible publicly defines its fundraising model as three streams—small individual grassroots donations, larger individual gifts, and family/public foundations—and states a clear policy aim that grassroots donations should be the single largest source and that no single contribution will exceed the total grassroots pool [2]. That stated philosophy is important context for interpreting totals, but it is a policy goal rather than a line‑by‑line accounting of 2023 small‑dollar revenue [2].
3. Evidence that foundations remained a significant 2023 funding source
Reporting assembled in 2023 and 2024 documents shows notable foundation support in 2023: InfluenceWatch’s summary cites an approximately $3.0 million payment from the Open Society Action Fund to Indivisible in 2023 and notes other foundation flows including smaller Tides Foundation grants, establishing that foundations supplied at least several million dollars that year [1]. InfluenceWatch also notes that one donor constituted 23% of Indivisible’s funding in 2023 — an indication that large institutional gifts were material to the organization’s 2023 revenue mix [1].
4. What the numbers imply — a conservative reconstruction and its limits
Using the disclosed totals, direct contributions ($7.8M) represented roughly 62% of the $12.5M reported revenue in 2023, and the known Open Society Action Fund grant of about $3M represented roughly 24% of total revenue [1]. However, those direct contributions include large individual gifts and foundation grants alongside true small‑dollar grassroots gifts; the provided sources do not separate “small‑dollar” from “larger individual” donations in 2023, so any attempt to state a precise percentage for small‑dollar receipts would be an estimate, not a documented fact [1] [2].
5. Historical context and competing narratives
Historical reporting shows the share of revenue from small donors has varied as Indivisible scaled—past years saw small‑donor shares ranging from mid‑teens to mid‑30s percent in different snapshots [4] [5]. Critics and watchdogs emphasize disclosed foundation dollars (citing multi‑million grants from Open Society entities), while Indivisible emphasizes that grassroots donations remain central and that organizational rules prevent any single donor from exceeding the grassroots total; both angles are grounded in parts of the public record supplied here [1] [2] [3].
6. Bottom line answer to the question asked
Based on the documents provided, Indivisible’s 2023 financial statements show approximately $12.5 million in total revenue and $7.8 million in direct contributions, and they disclose at least a $3.0 million foundation grant from Open Society Action Fund in 2023 — which demonstrates foundations accounted for a substantial, identifiable slice of 2023 revenue [1]. The exact share that came specifically from “small‑dollar” donations in 2023 cannot be determined from the supplied sources because Indivisible’s public summaries and the third‑party reporting do not itemize small‑dollar receipts separately from larger individual gifts and foundation grants for that year [1] [2]. Any precise percent split would require line‑item donor‑category disclosure that is not present in the materials provided.