Illinois · Nonprofit
FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP
FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,563,305 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($985,260). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $985k
What Free Spirit Media Nfp does
Mission
Free Spirit Medias mission is to partner with young storytellers to transform media and society. Free Spirit Media partners with young storytellers, ages 11-25 and primarily from the west and south sides of Chicago, to develop and amplifytheir unique and critical voices through storytelling and media arts. We do this through our holistic creative youth development programming which focuses on community-building, skill-sharing and career and education pathways that support young people to envision and build their futures as artists and within the media industry and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Creative Pathways is a creative workforce program that offers 16-25 year olds an interrelated suite of film industry opportunities including communities of practice for aspiring filmmakers, advanced media arts programming, paid internship opportunities, paid opportunities to gain experience in all aspects of filmmaking through a creation of a young artist directed and produced film-project and an advanced production cohort that provides content for clients.
$448,278 spent53% of program spendingProduction - A 12-week intensive training program for emerging media makers (usually ages 1825) that combines hands-on industry training with experience on real productions. Participants receive instruction from professionals, learn technical and production skills (camera, grip, editing, etc.), and work toward producing a short film project with mentorship from industry veterans.
$150,365 spent18% of program spendingTeen Media - Young artists, age 11 to 18, participate in a wide range of media arts programs, both in an arts center and school-based environment. Skilled teaching artists mentor young storytellers in the art of filmmaking, photography, sound and music production, screenwriting and other modalities connected to media arts. Young artists learn the components of visual storytelling and develop core proficiencies in scriptwriting, editing, photography, camerawork, audio engineering, and performance. Young creators hone their media literacy, including awareness of media influence, and their own roles as both media creators and media consumers. Teen programs run year-round, with sessions in the Fall, Spring and Summer.
$137,995 spent16% of program spendingPlace-Based Programs - Free Spirit Media (FSM) utilizes creative placekeeping and transformative justice practices to partner with FSM's community of young people, families, neighbors, and community partners. FSM's Intergenerational programs are place-based and include facilitated events such as community meals, art making workshops, community wellness retreats, film screenings and story sharing circles.
$55,525 spent7% of program spendingResidencies - Participants engage for extended periods in structured, creative media production learning and making. They receive mentorship, access to equipment, and space to work on major projects that are often premiered publicly or professionally showcased.
$51,871 spent6% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $844,034.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2020 to 2021, from $1.9M to $1.3M (−32%).
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: 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 23% · 2022 43% · 2023 34% · 2024 37% · 2025 55%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
Katie Green
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 18 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $542k → $248k.
8 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 SPIRIT MEDIA NFP’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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 SPIRIT MEDIA NFP has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
44% 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 FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 42% · 2019 44% · 2020 19% · 2021 29% · 2022 43% · 2023 27% — 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
19% of FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
84% of FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 SPIRIT MEDIA NFP runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,064 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,064 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $225k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$225k
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 FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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 FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP: 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 SPIRIT MEDIA NFP?
- FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,563,305 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($985,260). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $4,563,305 in grants to FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $985,260 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Free Spirit Media Nfp →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 66 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing