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California · Nonprofit

First Look Institute Inc

First Look Institute Inc (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $126,864,568 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($123,463,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$1.5M
Revenue FY2024
70
Funders on record
$127M
Grants received
$-1546043
Net assets
21/70 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year

Against its field

First Look Institute Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin53% · top quartile
Months of reserve29.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−27% · bottom quartile

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.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($14M) Expenses 100 ($26M) Net assets 100 ($16M)2018 Revenue 238 ($33M) Expenses 103 ($27M) Net assets 138 ($21M)2019 Revenue 207 ($28M) Expenses 109 ($28M) Net assets 139 ($22M)2020 Revenue 194 ($27M) Expenses 113 ($29M) Net assets 122 ($19M)2021 Revenue 100 ($14M) Expenses 109 ($28M) Net assets 28 ($4.4M)2022 Revenue 267 ($37M) Expenses 98 ($26M) Net assets 100 ($16M)2023 Revenue 65 ($8.9M) Expenses 104 ($27M) Net assets -15 ($-2372500)2024 Revenue 11 ($1.5M) Expenses 3 ($721k) Net assets -10 ($-1546043)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (11)Expenses (3)Net assets (-10)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of First Look Institute Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,374 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$12M
17
$6.1M
18
$161k
19
$2.6M
20
$15M
21
$11M
22
$18M
23
$826k
24
30
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $16k → $9.9M.

17 of 70 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)99% 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 First Look Institute Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 70 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

First Look Institute Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 97% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

99% 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 First Look Institute Inc.

97%
largest funder
98%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 99% · 2021 86% · 2022 97% · 2023 92%growing more concentrated.

“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

23% of First Look Institute Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 30% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

99% of First Look Institute Inc'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 $1.7M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside California, across 21 states.

ME
WA
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
WV
VA
DE
NM
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $125M 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.

03Its place in the field

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 70 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

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 First Look Institute Inc

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

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

0% of spending goes to programs.

Program 0%Management 100%Fundraising 0%

Governance

3
board members
33%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 38 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
HI
OK
MS
AL
GA
FL

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • First Look Entertainment Inc · corp_trust
  • First Look Services Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for First Look Institute 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 First Look Institute Inc?
First Look Institute Inc (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $126,864,568 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($123,463,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does First Look Institute Inc have?
IRS filings report 70 organizations giving $126,864,568 in grants to First Look Institute Inc, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of First Look Institute Inc?
Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $123,463,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like First Look Institute Inc 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 70funders 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