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Illinois · Nonprofit

Growing Community Media NFP

Growing Community Media NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,053,824 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($350,700). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.8M
Funders on record
11
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$730k
8/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 11%
01What it does

What Growing Community Media NFP does

Mission

Growing Community Media, NFP exists to make a positive impact on the communities and neighborhoods it serves by reporting, writing, publishing, and connecting those communities through print and online media.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Community journalism: Growing Community Media connects citizens through community journalism rooted deep in our neighborhoods, based in facts, and reflective of voices not always heard. Each publication reports deeply from within its own community, at a granular level unavailable elsewhere in the local media landscape. Dedicated newsroom staff produces inisghtful hyperlocal coverage of each of our seven communities 52 weeks per year.

    $1,412,232 spent$235,244 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,412,232.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($833k) Expenses 100 ($106k) Net assets 100 ($727k)2021 Revenue 217 ($1.8M) Expenses 1463 ($1.6M) Net assets 135 ($984k)2022 Revenue 242 ($2.0M) Expenses 1666 ($1.8M) Net assets 170 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 193 ($1.6M) Expenses 1841 ($2.0M) Net assets 122 ($888k)2024 Revenue 249 ($2.1M) Expenses 1926 ($2.0M) Net assets 127 ($920k)2025 Revenue 217 ($1.8M) Expenses 1882 ($2.0M) Net assets 101 ($730k)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (217)Expenses (1882)Net assets (101)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 2022 to 2023, from $1.4M to $1.8M (+27%).

$1.0M
$1.1M
$1.4M
$1.8M
$1.8M
$1.6M
202020212022202320242025
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

30% of Growing Community Media NFP’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,395 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$727k
’20
$258k
’21
$249k
’22
−$346k
’23
$32k
’24
−$187k
’25
2.2
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.

Chief executive

Daniel Haley

Executive Director

Board chair

Eric Weinheimer

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202020212022202320242025
Listed9989911
Joined·+0+0+1+0+4
No longer listed·01002
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $74k → $183k.

7 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 Growing Community Media NFP’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.

How concentrated its funding is

Growing Community Media NFP leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

95% 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 Growing Community Media NFP.

33%
largest funder
69%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 56% · 2022 43% · 2023 49% — 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.

Where its funders are

93% of Growing Community Media NFP'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. Of the $74k that is directly attributable, 69% of it comes from Illinois funders.

IL
CA
NC

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

’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $980k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Growing Community Media NFP has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−10% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)17% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Growing Community 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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

71% of spending goes to programs.

Program 71%Management 25%Fundraising 5%

Governance

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

Public support

37%

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 Growing Community 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.

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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 Growing Community Media NFP?
Growing Community Media NFP (Illinois) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,053,824 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($350,700). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Growing Community Media NFP have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $1,053,824 in grants to Growing Community Media NFP, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Growing Community Media NFP?
The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $350,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Growing Community 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 Growing Community 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 11 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