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Blackstar Projects Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Blackstar Projects Inc

Promoting film and visual culture by people of color, blackstar is focused on creating the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of black, brown and indigenous artists working outside of the confines of genre.

$363k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$82k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$178kEnvironment$30kCommunity Improvement$25kHealth$7k
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 12 grants below total $314,906, the rows itemized in this filing. The $363,106 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $48,200 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $214k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $82k
$25,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$5.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LALIBALTIMORE LLC$81,906
TWO BIRDS ONE KEY LLC$30,000
SOFT FILM LLC$28,500
INGOMA LLC$25,000
STUDIO ANYI LLC$25,000
SOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLC$25,000
KARMALUX LLC$23,750
WHITE MEAT MOVIE LLC$19,000
FIRE WORK MEDIA LLC$19,000
KEEPS ME FREE LLC$18,750
MOSTLY TRUE FILMS LLC$9,500
STUDIO KALEIDOSCOPE$9,500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%INGOMA LLC: $25k → 9%STUDIO KALEIDOSCOPE: $10k → 22%TWO BIRDS ONE KEY LLC: $30k → 14%MOSTLY TRUE FILMS LLC: $10k → 17%KEEPS ME FREE LLC: $19k → 20%DAVE PURCHASE PROJECT: $7k → 9%HIGHWAYS DOC LLC: $30k → 14%LALIBALTIMORE LLC: $82k → 19%INGOMA LLC: $25k → 9%STUDIO ANYI LLC: $25k → 22%STUDIO ANYI LLC: $25k → 22%BOTANICA PICTURES: $10k → 22%SOFT FILM LLC: $29k → 22%WHITE MEAT MOVIE LLC: $19k → 22%SOFT FILM LLC: $14k → 22%RED TYPEWRITER STUDIO: $19k → 22%SOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLC: $25k → 22%SOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLC: $25k → 22%KARMALUX LLC: $24k → 22%FIRE WORK MEDIA LLC: $19k → 22%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

40%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$221k · 5 repeat orgs$334k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
5

Total granted

$221k
$123k

Still filing today

0%
20%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 33% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $211k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • SA
    STUDIO ANYI LLC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $50k
  • IL
    INGOMA LLC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $50k
  • SP
    SOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $50k

Funded once

  • SM
    SICKAMOE MEDIA LLC
    one grant, 2023 · $38k
  • HD
    HIGHWAYS DOC LLC
    one grant, 2024 · $30k
  • DP
    DANDELION PICTURES
    one grant, 2023 · $29k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field
04the grantee network

1 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 1 of the 18 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
1/1
Grantees still filing
1/1
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LALIBALTIMORE LLC: $81,906 · OtherLALIBALTIMORE LLCSTUDIO ANYI LLC: $50,000 · OtherSTUDIO ANYI LLCINGOMA LLC: $50,000 · OtherINGOMA LLCSOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLC: $50,000 · OtherSOTOMAYOR PRODUCTIONS DEVELOPMENT LLCSOFT FILM LLC: $42,750 · OtherSOFT FILM LLCSICKAMOE MEDIA LLC: $38,000 · OtherSICKAMOE MEDIA LLCHIGHWAYS DOC LLC: $30,000 · OtherHIGHWAYS DOC LLCTWO BIRDS ONE KEY LLC: $30,000 · OtherTWO BIRDS ONE KEY LLCDANDELION PICTURES: $28,500 · OtherBOTANICA PICTURES: $28,500 · OtherKARMALUX LLC: $23,750 · OtherFIRE WORK MEDIA LLC: $19,000 · OtherRED TYPEWRITER STUDIO: $19,000 · OtherWHITE MEAT MOVIE LLC: $19,000 · OtherKEEPS ME FREE LLC: $18,750 · Other+2 more: $19,000 · OtherDAVE PURCHASE PROJECT: $7,304 · Health
Other$548,156Health$7,304

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%grantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDAVE PURCHASE PROJECT: $7,304 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds DAVE PURCHASE PROJECT ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Blackstar Projects Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Blackstar Projects Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Blackstar Projects Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Blackstar Projects Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 18 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    More from the funding graph

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    The regranting layer
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    The endowment market
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    The camps
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