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Funding

Illinois · Nonprofit

FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP

FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,433,305 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($905,260). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$1.4M
Revenue FY2025
65
Funders on record
$4.4M
Grants received
$985k
Net assets
33/65 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 64%

Against its field

FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 922 youth development nonprofits its size.

Operating margin21% · top quartile
Months of reserve8.2mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−8% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 922 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

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 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($2.3M) Expenses 100 ($2.1M) Net assets 100 ($1.5M)2020 Revenue 93 ($2.1M) Expenses 96 ($2.1M) Net assets 102 ($1.5M)2021 Revenue 58 ($1.3M) Expenses 92 ($2.0M) Net assets 59 ($894k)2022 Revenue 49 ($1.1M) Expenses 61 ($1.3M) Net assets 46 ($686k)2023 Revenue 42 ($950k) Expenses 40 ($864k) Net assets 52 ($783k)2024 Revenue 43 ($964k) Expenses 44 ($945k) Net assets 50 ($749k)2025 Revenue 61 ($1.4M) Expenses 50 ($1.1M) Net assets 65 ($985k)
2019202020212022202320242025
Revenue (61)Expenses (50)Net assets (65)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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

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).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,026 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$104k
19
$14k
20
$670k
21
$189k
22
$85k
23
$19k
24
$283k
25
8.2
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 18 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $542k → $248k.

8 of 65 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)34% 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 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 SPIRIT MEDIA NFP has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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

42% 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.

20%
largest funder
50%
top three
~9
effective funders

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; 51% 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

84% of FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

IL
MI
NY
OH
NJ
CA
CO
VA
NC
DC
GA
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M 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.

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 65 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.

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.

Federal$225k
grants $225kcontracts $0
17
18
20
22
24
Top agencies
  • 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

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 Illinois

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 13%Fundraising 9%

Governance

5
board members
80%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

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

IL

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.

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 FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP?
FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,433,305 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($905,260). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FREE SPIRIT MEDIA NFP have?
IRS filings report 65 organizations giving $4,433,305 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 $905,260 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.

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 65funders 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