Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
FREE PRESS
FREE PRESS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,987,113 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($11,125,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.8M
- Funders on record
- 65
- Grants received
- $34M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Free Press does
Mission
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities. Free Press closely monitors decisions shaping the media landscape are made and sounds the alarm when people's rights to connect and communicate are in danger. We focus on achieving affordable internet for all, saving net neutrality, uplifting the voices of people of color in the media, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance, defending press freedom, and reimagining local journalism.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Future of the internet and media: continued efforts to ensure the federal communications commission protects people from internet service providers' privacy invasions, promote broadband competition and deployment, and ensure consumer protections. Continued to document and oppose media consolidation and efforts to limit media-ownership opportunities for women and people of color. Filed comments in the fcc's quadrennial regulatory review that called on the agency to reject local media consolidation and debunked broadcasters' claims that consolidation is in the public interest, showing that communities have always suffered whenever the fcc has loosened local ownership limits. Underscored how mergers of massive media companies lead to higher prices, job losses, fewer choices, less opportunity and diversity in major sectors of the economy. Issued a report evaluating the independence of the 35 largest media conglomerates in the united states and documenting a pervasive trend of capitulating to political pressure that involves nearly all major commercial media, including cable and telecommunications firms and online platforms. Teamed up with a coalition of media-justice groups and labor…
$1,059,265 spentof which $75,000 as grants14% of program spendingDemocracy and digital civil rights: continued to call on media and tech companies to prioritize truth over sensationalism, accountability over profits and democracy over division. Continued to push tech platforms to adopt content-moderation policies and practices that are more robust, transparent and responsive to the interests and needs of users. Convened a series of webinars to offer public education about the first amendment and the importance of public expression of opinions without government censorship and the right to protest governmental actions. Conducted analysis and released reports on government censorship and corporate capitulation. . Documented more than 200 government attacks on free speech. Testified before congress on the emerging free-speech emergency and defended the right to speak and write without fear of intimidation and harassment by government officials, without fear of unlawful government surveillance, and without fear of unconstitutional censorship and retaliation. Presented research about the environmental impacts of data centers and their role in facilitating corporate and government surveillance. Urged regulatory intervention to safeguard people's…
$1,234,384 spentof which $75,000 as grants16% of program spendingFuture of journalism: continued to defend the rights of journalists and oppose the unlawful detention of journalists covering protests across the nation. Conducted a study and issued a report that offers a number of solutions to the crisis of media capitulation to governmental power, including funding independent journalism that holds the powerful accountable and provides space for dissenting voices. Issued a report outlining ways that communities can create news and information systems that foster independence and connection. Conducted a listening tour in massachusetts to meet with local journalists and community leaders. Embarked on a similar tour in wisconsin, which has lost roughly 60 percent of its newspapers since 2004. Continued public education and leadership of organizing efforts in california, massachusetts, new jersey, pennsylvania, washington state and wisconsin focused on creation of new publicly supported media systems that expand independent local news and serve people across class, cultures and languages. Through the media 2070 project, documented how centuries of harm the u.s. Media system has inflicted on the black community. Worked with allied organizations to…
$5,281,952 spentof which $1,433,000 as grants70% of program spendingFree Press works to preserve rights to open communication, free expression and privacy. Areas of focus include future of the internet and media; democracy and digital civil rights; and future of journalism. In 2025, Free Press conducted research and education, while organizing and mobilizing for better media, open technology and a healthier democracy. Provided regular information via email, website, and webinars to 1.4 million constituents hailing from all 50 states, the district of columbia and puerto rico. Attracted 500,000 overall website visits and virtual events attracted hundreds of participants. Interacted with over 150,000 social media followers and earned 2,160 press hits. Created and disseminated resource materials including research reports, issue briefs, factsheets, and brochures. Launched "pressing issues," a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting ideas and analysis about everything happening at the intersection of media, technology and democracy. Provided training and support to dozens of local and regional media reform groups and to thousands of local media activists. Filed public comments, and participated in several federal communications commission proceedings and…
$32,750 earned by the program
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,575,601.
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 $5.2M to $11M (+105%).
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: 2020 8% · 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of FREE PRESS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% 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.
Board chair
Victor Pickard
Director, chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $1.9M → $5.5M.
17 of 65 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 FREE PRESS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 65 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
FREE PRESS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 51% · 2019 76% · 2020 54% · 2021 18% · 2022 24% · 2023 22% — 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
47% of FREE PRESS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
FREE PRESS draws 86% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M 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.
Against its field
FREE PRESS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FREE PRESS
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 32 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Free Press Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FREE PRESS: 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 FREE PRESS?
- FREE PRESS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $33,987,113 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($11,125,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FREE PRESS have?
- IRS filings report 65 organizations giving $33,987,113 in grants to FREE PRESS, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FREE PRESS?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $11,125,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FREE PRESS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 65 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