Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION
ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,317,801 to it, the largest being THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC ($765,731). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Alternative Newsweekly Foundation does
Mission
The Alternative Newsweekly Foundation is dedicated to the promotion and support of independent journalism.anf serves as a fiscal sponsor to organizations that are building and sustaining news and information infrastructure across the country.as part of its affiliation with aan publishers (aan.org), anf supports the professional development of journalists and connects young journalists with mentors.anf works side by side with aan to support the core principles of the alternative press: speaking truth to power, telling stories that would otherwise go untold, and giving voice to those who would otherwise go unheard.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Feln: fund for equity in local news, a fiscally sponsored project of anf, received grant funding from google news initiative to produce the transformation tech lab series, which delivered training and grant funding to 240 news outlets over a two-year period (june 2023-dec2024).
$1,472,749 spentof which $1,060,000 as grants$1,690,000 earned by the program40% of program spendingCoaz: conecta arizona, a fiscally sponsored project of anf, is an independent news organization that uses grant funding and small donations to produce a news website, news podcasts, and news events in arizona. Grant funding periods are spread over multiple years. Coaz has not yet spent all of its grant funding.
$392,459 spent$822,196 earned by the program11% of program spendingAlta: altavoz lab, a fiscally sponsored project of anf, is an independent news organization that mentors, trains and uplifts local reporters to produce impactful and collaborative accountability and service-oriented reporting projects at outlets serving historically disinvested communities across the u.s. Alta has not yet spent all of its grant funding.
$156,428 spentof which $3,250 as grants$616,745 earned by the program4% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$1,618,298 spentof which $1,198,085 as grants44% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,639,934.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $23k to $2.0M (+8715%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
96% of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Ellen Meany
Executive director & secretary
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
16 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
65% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
58% of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $963k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 9 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 479 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 479 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION?
- ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,317,801 to it, the largest being THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC ($765,731). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $2,317,801 in grants to ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION?
- THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $765,731 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLY FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 32 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing