California · Nonprofit
CalMatters
CalMatters (California) receives grants from 131 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,375,849 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,873,730). 90 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 131
- Grants received
- $56M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What CalMatters does
Mission
Our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, is committed to meaningfully informing Californians about the players, politics, and interests that shape the issues that affect their lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Editorial/Reporting: CalMatters was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism venture focused on California politics and policy. Our target audience is civically engaged Californians, including voters and those who might be motivated to vote, along with civic leaders, state legislators and their staffs, lobbyists, academics and activists. Our mission is to fill the void in state government coverage caused by the decline of traditional journalism organizations and to improve Californias democracy by increasing government transparency, holding politicians accountable, and empowering Californians to participate meaningfully in their own governance. We do that by informing and engaging Californians about state government and public policy that affects their lives, with a focus on education, environment, economy, health and the
$14,387,395 spent$1,164,834 earned by the program100% of program spendingenvironment.Environmental regulation, education, health care, criminal justice, economic inequality the debates on these issues and others have a profound impact on the lives of 38 million Californians and beyond. Yet, mirroring trends across the country, there has been a significant decline in the number of journalists covering the Capitol in Sacramento. This has meant fewer eyes on decision makers, and a public that feels disconnected from its state government.Our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, is committed to meaningfully informing Californians about the players, politics, and interests that shape the issues that affect their lives. To ensure we reach many Californians, we work with more than 180 media partners throughout the state that
have long, deep relationships with their local audiences.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,387,395.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 $5.9M to $9.5M (+60%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of CalMatters’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 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
Neil Chase
CEO
Board chair
Hema Sareen Mohan
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 67 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $10M.
25 of 131 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.5M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Markup News Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money CalMatters raised.
From the IRS filings of CalMatters’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 131 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
CalMatters has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
48% 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 CalMatters.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 34% · 2019 33% · 2020 25% · 2021 19% · 2022 25% · 2023 11% — 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.
How long its funders stay
60% of CalMatters's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
78% of CalMatters's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $23M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
CalMatters runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 63 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 63 civil rights nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CalMatters
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.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Markup News Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CalMatters: 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 CalMatters?
- CalMatters (California) receives grants from 131 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,375,849 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($8,873,730). 90 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CalMatters have?
- IRS filings report 131 organizations giving $56,375,849 in grants to CalMatters, 90 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CalMatters?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $8,873,730 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CalMatters 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 CalMatters →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 131 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