California · Nonprofit
Independent Arts & Media
Independent Arts & Media (California) receives grants from 136 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,220,424 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,956,740). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 136
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Independent Arts & Media does
Mission
Independent Arts & Media's mission is to steward and empower independent art and media projects that foster community and civic participation and facilitate cultural engagement and free expression.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
IAM offers fiscal sponsorship to projects and producers that advance IAMs charitable purpose as approved by the IRS: to raise and support the educational, cultural, and social levels of, and expand the related opportunities available to, the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regional and national communities, including members of under-served, minority, and low-income communities, through the development of non-commercial projects for the benefit of the general public, including, but not limited to, educational, cultural, community, media, news, and art-related projects.(continued next section)
$4,566,162 spentof which $1,061,312 as grants$262,290 earned by the program100% of program spendingIAM currently supports over 150 affiliates dedicated to non-commercial work in media and the arts, including publishing, theater, dance, music, visual art, film and video, radio, mixed media and transmedia, journalism, history, and public-events production and convening.While most of IAM's Affiliates are in the Bay Area, several are located throughout the United States, including New York, Illinois, Nevada, Utah, and Massachusetts.
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,566,162.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.7M to $5.5M (+106%).
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: 2017 8% · 2018 8% · 2019 2% · 2020 14% · 2021 13% · 2022 19% · 2023 19% · 2024 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Independent Arts & Media’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. 1 of the last 8 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
Lisa Burger
Exec Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 39 funders, grant income rose $33k → $2.9M.
29 of 136 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Independent Arts & Media’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 136 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
Independent Arts & Media has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
56% 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 Independent Arts & Media.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 39% · 2019 33% · 2020 63% · 2021 11% · 2022 45% · 2023 28% — 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
16% of Independent Arts & Media's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
70% of Independent Arts & Media's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
Independent Arts & Media holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Independent Arts & Media receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$100k
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 Independent Arts & Media
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 Independent Arts & Media: 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 Independent Arts & Media?
- Independent Arts & Media (California) receives grants from 136 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,220,424 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,956,740). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Independent Arts & Media have?
- IRS filings report 136 organizations giving $13,220,424 in grants to Independent Arts & Media, 52 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Independent Arts & Media?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,956,740 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Independent Arts & Media find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 136 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