California · Nonprofit
Frameline Inc
Frameline Inc (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,290,292 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($620,080). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $479k
What Frameline Inc does
Mission
Frameline's mission is to change the world through the power of queer cinema. As a media arts nonprofit, Frameline's programs connect filmmakers and audiences in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world. Frameline presents the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, the longest running, largest, and most widely recognized LGBTQ film exhibition event in the world. Established in 1981, Frameline Distribution serves an international audience of hundreds of thousands and is the leading educational distributor solely dedicated to LGBTQ film and video. Since 1990, nearly 200 films have been completed with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund. Frameline Voices exhibits 100+ films featuring underrepresented constituents within the LGBTQ community and available for free via online streaming.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
ExhibitionThe San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBT film exhibition event in the world. As a community event with an annual attendance of up to 60,000, the Festival is the most prominent and well-attended LGBTQ+ arts program in the world. Frameline also presents year-round exhibitions, including Frameline Encore, a film series highlighting diverse, socially relevant works. Year-round programs also include members-only sneak previews and special events, as well as special screenings and events featuring directors, actors and other queer media icons.
$1,752,133 spentof which $64,563 as grants$765,668 earned by the program100% of program spendingDistributionFrameline Distribution is the only nonprofit distributor that solely caters to LGBTQ+ film. Our organization has over 250 award winning films and we have partnerships with universities, public libraries, film festivals, and community groups. Youth In Motion is a program that provides free LGBTQ+-themed films and curriculum resources to various educational institutions. Frameline Voices is our program that showcases diverse LGBTQ+ stories with an emphasis on films by and about people of color, transgender people, youth, and elders. Frameline has commissioned or partnered on 10 restorations of canonical queer films, revealing crisp details and deeply saturated colors as they were intended to be seen. Framelines restorations are available for theatrical bookings, exhibition and can be screened on streaming platforms.
ARTIST DEVELOPMENTSince 1990, approximately 200 films and videos have been completed with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund. Grants are awarded annually and provide much-needed support to filmmakers for their final editing and lab work. Once completed, these films often go on to receive international exposure. Submissions include documentary, educational, narrative, animation, and experimental projects about LGBTQ+ people and their communities.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,752,133.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.4M to $694k (−49%).
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: 2017 5% · 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 8% · 2021 26% · 2022 17% · 2023 22% · 2024 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of Frameline Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $203k → $325k.
13 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 Frameline Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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
Frameline Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
54% 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 Frameline Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 47% · 2019 24% · 2020 36% · 2021 36% · 2022 29% · 2023 23% — 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
55% of Frameline Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
94% of Frameline Inc's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
Frameline Inc's funding base is broadening — from 10 funders to 17 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Frameline Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $270k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$270k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Frameline 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ninth Street Media Consortium · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Frameline 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.
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 Frameline Inc?
- Frameline Inc (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,290,292 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($620,080). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Frameline Inc have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $2,290,292 in grants to Frameline Inc, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Frameline Inc?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $620,080 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Frameline 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 32 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