· Public charity
Firelight Media Inc
Firelight media's mission is to provide filmmakers mentorship, funding, and creative development to support the creation, distribution, and impact of documentary media by and about communities of color in all our vibrance and complexity.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE INSTRUMENT PROJECT LLC | $27,500 |
| MIGHTY SQUAWK PRODUCTIONS | $25,000 |
| TROJAN HORSE MEDIA INC | $25,000 |
| YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME | $25,000 |
| SEABREEZE MEDIA INC | $25,000 |
| FIRE FROG MEDIA LLC | $25,000 |
| CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOC | $25,000 |
| TALKING STONES LLC | $25,000 |
| AMULETOS PROJECTS LLC | $25,000 |
| QUEENS DISCO PRODUCTION LLC | $25,000 |
| BIMSHIRE PROJECT LLC | $25,000 |
| MATININO LLC | $25,000 |
| WE LOVE MOROCCO LLC | $25,000 |
| DELU PRODUCTIONS LLC | $20,000 |
| COMMUTED FILM LLC | $20,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 73% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
Grants abroad, by region: $145k on the FY2025 return
Schedule F, as filed: 2 regions, $25k to organizations and $120k to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.
Stated purpose: IMPACT/RESEARCH GRANT
How this is measured
4 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. 4 of the 50 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Sundance Institute · The Ford Foundation · International Documentary Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Firelight Media Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Firelight Media Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- The Center for Independent Documentary Inc: 6% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Firelight Media’s filings →