California · Nonprofit
Black Image Center
Black Image Center (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $361,721 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($150,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $199k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $362k
- Net assets
- $62k
What Black Image Center does
Mission
Black Image Center BIC is a collective based non-profit 501c3 founded by a group of young black photographers in Los Angeles. We aim to cultivate imagination through photography and economically empower black storytellers and image makers. BIC lives online and offline. We encourage our young friends to pick up cameras and we get our grown friends jobs. we serve as a hub of resources and as a network of economic empowerment for the black creative community. We are all perpetually changing. water us and watch us bloom.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Black Image Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting Black photographers and storytellers across Los Angeles. Founded to create space for the freedom, development, and growth of the Black imagination, our work in 2024 originated at our brick and mortar space and expanded to our programming partners across the city of LAreaching into every corner of the city through accessible, affordable photography programming. From artist residencies and workshops to photo walks, film festivals, and co-working hours, our programs engage over 800 participants annually with an online community of over 15,000. In 2024, we distributed over 300 of free film, preserved family histories for Black families through the Black Family Archive, and supported over 40 workshops and initiatives that prioritized community, access, and legacy-building. With the support of our partners and community, we've grown into a dynamic network of creatives reclaiming storytelling, preserving history, and establishing real pathways into the creative industry.
$142,665 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $142,665.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $15k to $43k (+185%).
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.
77% of Black Image Center’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $20k → $108k.
4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 Black Image Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Black Image Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
69% 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 Black Image Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 50% · 2023 46% — diversifying over time.
“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
54% of Black Image Center'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 $166k that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $196k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Black Image Center has grown faster than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Black Image Center
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Black Image Center: 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 Black Image Center?
- Black Image Center (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $361,721 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($150,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Black Image Center have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $361,721 in grants to Black Image Center, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Black Image Center?
- CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Black Image Center find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Black Image Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 12 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing