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Washington · Nonprofit

GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS

GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS (Washington) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $20,000 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$8k
Funders on record
1
Grants received
$20k
Net assets
$53k
0/1 repeat funders
01What it does

What Great Northern Filmworks does

Mission

Great Northern Filmworks' mission is to produce compelling and educational historical documentaries.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Great Northern Filmworks' mission is to produce compelling and educational historical documentaries. Its initial project is to produce a feature- length documentary titled "the empire builder." it is the the story of james j. Hill & the great northern railway. It will tell the story of james j. Hill and how his vision to build a railroad empire fueled the growth of our nation.

    $2,321 spent$8,054 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,321.

02The 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 ($203k) Expenses 100 ($12k) Net assets 100 ($267k)2020 Revenue 9 ($18k) Expenses 233 ($29k) Net assets 96 ($256k)2021 Revenue 0 ($821) Expenses 287 ($35k) Net assets 83 ($222k)2022 Revenue 14 ($29k) Expenses 1660 ($204k) Net assets 18 ($47k)2023 Revenue 10 ($21k) Expenses 161 ($20k) Net assets 18 ($48k)2024 Revenue 4 ($8k) Expenses 32 ($4k) Net assets 20 ($53k)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (4)Expenses (32)Net assets (20)Peer revenue range

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 $222k to $47k (−79%).

$267k
$256k
$222k
$47k
$48k
$53k
201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

0% of GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (78% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 18,808 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$191k
’19
−$10k
’20
−$34k
’21
−$175k
’22
$1k
’23
$4k
’24
163
months of
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.

201920202021202220232024
Listed888888
Joined·+0+0+0+0+0
No longer listed·00000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.

Funder
'18
total
funders
1

1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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.

Where its funders are

100% of GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin52% · top quartile
Months of reserve163.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−48% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024

Organizations like GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS

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

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

60% of spending goes to programs.

Program 60%Management 40%Fundraising 0%

Governance

8
board members
75%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

90%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS: 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.

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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 GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS?
GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS (Washington) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $20,000 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS have?
IRS filings report 1 organization giving $20,000 in grants to GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS.
Who is the largest funder of GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS?
SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GREAT NORTHERN FILMWORKS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Great Northern Filmworks →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 1 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