Illinois · Nonprofit
FRESH FILMS
FRESH FILMS (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,779,423 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER ATLANTA INC ($250,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.2M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Fresh Films does
Mission
Fresh Films' (the organization) mission is to change the trajectory of underserved youth through engaging them in the creative and technical processes of filmmaking; filmmaking is our vehicle for mentorship, leadership, and workforce development among teens. The program serves diverse underserved teens of all ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, and experience levels.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Fresh Films works with underserved teens and young adults ages 14-26 to build their technical skills, career and life skills (21st century skills), confidence and realization of their own future potential through actively involving them in the collaborative, creative and technical processes of filmmaking- filmmaking is our vehicle for mentorship, leadership and workforce development among teens. The program serves diverse underserved teens of all ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, and experience levels. The program goal is to build career pathways, job opportunities and college readiness for the $771b media/entertainment industry that is growing rapidly due to non-traditional video producers, the growth of traditional producers for digital demand as well as the growth of visual communications across social media and other platforms. The 3-leveled learning program operates at 28 physical sites + 3 virtual sites which includes after-school and evening filmmaking, summer workplace experiences and paid internships. Wrap around supports including speaker and soft-skills workshops compliment the tech learning.Fresh Films revenue comes from corporate and foundation grants, program…
$2,358,877 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,358,877.
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 $1.2M to $1.8M (+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: 2020 5% · 2021 13% · 2022 12% · 2023 27% · 2024 51% · 2025 48%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of FRESH FILMS’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.
Chief executive
Kelli Feigley
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $38k → $459k.
7 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 FRESH FILMS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
FRESH FILMS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
80% 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 FRESH FILMS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 74% · 2020 39% · 2021 52% · 2022 28% · 2023 17% — 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
38% of FRESH FILMS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
FRESH FILMS draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $705k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
FRESH FILMS has grown faster 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
Government funding FRESH FILMS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $173k on record — $170k federal, $3k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$170k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$3k
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 FRESH FILMS
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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
- Dreaming Tree Films · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRESH FILMS: 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 FRESH FILMS?
- FRESH FILMS (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,779,423 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER ATLANTA INC ($250,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FRESH FILMS have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,779,423 in grants to FRESH FILMS, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRESH FILMS?
- UNITED WAY OF GREATER ATLANTA INC is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRESH FILMS 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 Fresh Films →
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 31 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