California · Nonprofit
CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE
CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE (California) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,295,594 to it, the largest being AMERICAN JOURNALISM PROJECT INC ($2,446,250). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Zellerbach Family Foundationshared funders
- Local Independent Online News Publishers Incportfolio match
- Pro Publica Incportfolio match
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.
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 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE’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. 2 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income fell $1.3M → $937k.
14 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
96% 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 CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 92% · 2021 47% · 2022 35% · 2023 40% — 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
63% of CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
60% of CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE'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 $2.9M that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from funders outside California, across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 49 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Zellerbach Family Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 76 organizations that share your funders
- Local Independent Online News Publishers Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pro Publica Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Local Media Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Fund for Investigative Journalism Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Int'L Center for Journalists Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Alternative Newsweekly Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Solutions Journalism Network Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Crankstart Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 117 organizations that share your funders
- Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr Fundshared fundersCA · backs 97 organizations that share your funders
- Stupski Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 101 organizations that share your funders
- The Heising-Simons Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 119 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE?
- CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE (California) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,295,594 to it, the largest being AMERICAN JOURNALISM PROJECT INC ($2,446,250). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $7,295,594 in grants to CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE?
- AMERICAN JOURNALISM PROJECT INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,446,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITYSIDE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE 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.
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 49funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing