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Virginia · Nonprofit

CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC

CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,134,735 to it, the largest being CARILION MEDICAL CENTER ($300,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$1.4M
Funders on record
14
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$1.2M
9/14 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 25%
01What it does

What Cardinal Productions Inc does

Mission

Cardinal News, an independent, nonprofit news organization, reports the untold stories of Southwest and Southside Virginia, and strengthens the voices of the people in our communities who have been sidelined in the commonwealth's political, economic and cultural conversations simply because of where they live.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Cardinal News continued to grow during 2024 and added an executive editor, reporter and part-time copy editor, and enjoyed its first full year with a development team. Cardinal Productions Inc. board of directors enlarged its membership from three to five members, updated the bylaws and activated two committees: governance and development. Cardinal News is managed in a thoughtful, considered manner in order to serve its mission and to secure a sustainable financial path. During 2024, Cardinal News doubled the readers of its newsletters, published 2,000 stories and hosted 2.7 million visitors to its websites, who accounted for more than 4.7 million page views. It published a daily, weekly, political, weather and events newsletters, and created a podcast to complement its 3-year project, Cardinal 250, to tell the little-known stories of Virginia's role in the march to independence in advance of the nation's semiquincentennial. Cardinal News won numerous awards from the Virginia Press Association, including the sweepstakes award for online organizations and Young Journalist of the Year. Through our journalism, we continue to provide independent information to the people of our…

    $1,118,964 spent$56,166 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,118,964.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20212021 Revenue 100 ($470k) Expenses 100 ($150k) Net assets 100 ($320k)2022 Revenue 284 ($1.3M) Expenses 397 ($597k) Net assets 330 ($1.1M)2023 Revenue 277 ($1.3M) Expenses 722 ($1.1M) Net assets 398 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 290 ($1.4M) Expenses 946 ($1.4M) Net assets 379 ($1.2M)
2021202220232024
Revenue (290)Expenses (946)Net assets (379)Peer revenue range

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 $337k to $1.1M (+223%).

$337k
$1.1M
$1.3M
$1.3M
2021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 2% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

93% of CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,093 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.

$320k
’21
$737k
’22
$216k
’23
−$60k
’24
11
months of
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

Luanne Rife

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

2021202220232024
Listed3456
Joined·+1+1+2
No longer listed·001
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 10 funders, grant income rose $100k → $325k.

4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC’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

CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 26% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

70% 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 CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC.

26%
largest funder
66%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 30% · 2023 31% — 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

82% of CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC's grant income comes from Virginia funders.

MI
CA
VA
DE
TN

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’21
’22
’23
Virginia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $165k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,003 public benefit nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−4% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve10.6mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)43% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,003 public benefit nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC

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 Virginia

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 6%Fundraising 15%

Governance

5
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

VA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC: 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.

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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 CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC?
CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC (Virginia) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,134,735 to it, the largest being CARILION MEDICAL CENTER ($300,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC have?
IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,134,735 in grants to CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC?
CARILION MEDICAL CENTER is the largest funder on record, with $300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CARDINAL PRODUCTIONS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Cardinal Productions →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 14 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