Louisiana · Nonprofit
LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC
LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC (Louisiana) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,499,109 to it, the largest being CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION ($650,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $263k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $379k
What Lede New Orleans Inc does
Mission
Lede New Orleans is a community media hub that trains emerging Black and Brown storytellers,produces community-centered journalism, and creates trusted spaces for civic dialogue.Founded in 2020, Lede works to advance information equity in New Orleans by shifting whotells local stories and increasing access to accurate, contextual, and representative information.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
A news initiative that brings together young adults, journalists and artists to produce equitable, community-driven media in new orleans.
$289,818 spent100% of program spendingIn 2025, Lede New Orleans focused the majority of itsCommunity Reporting Fellowship efforts on a comprehensive program redesign to better meetthe needs of emerging storytellers and the communities they serve.? Lede extended the fellowship duration from 16 weeks to up to 24 weeks to allow fordeeper skill-building, reporting, and editorial support.? The organization enhanced training and coaching infrastructure and leveraged grantfunding to engage experienced media professionals to lead key aspects of the program,including editorial workflow oversight by a Senior Editor.? These changes were designed to strengthen reporting quality, reduce time pressure onfellows, and align program pacing more closely with community-centered journalismpractices.Following this redesign, the Community Reporting Fellowship relaunched in September 2025with a cohort of five fellows.? Fellows are currently receiving training and producing original reporting focused on localhousing issues in New Orleans.? Training will conclude in March 2026, with stories scheduled for publication in spring2026.While the fellowship was undergoing redesign, Lede marked its programmatic legacy bypartnering with The Front…
In 2025, Lede New Orleans expanded its publicengagement work by hosting four community events, engaging more than 225 New Orleansresidents through documentary screenings, panel discussions, and a public storytelling exhibit.? Events centered Black and Brown New Orleanians and created accessible, trustedspaces for civic dialogue and learning.? Evaluation data showed:? 75% of attendees reported learning new, useful information.? 50% of Community Reporting Fellows reported forming meaningful newcommunity connections through their reporting and public engagement work.This work was supported by a $75,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation, awarded in2024, which Lede leveraged in 2025 to pilot new engagement models.As part of this investment, Lede launched Co-Lede, its first-ever community journalismcommunity of practice open to residents of all ages.? Through monthly sessions, participants explored issues affecting their neighborhoodswhile learning foundational journalism skills such as interviewing, fact-checking, andresearch.? Co-Lede expanded access to the information-making process and advanced Ledesvision of a participatory, community-powered local media ecosystem.
In 2025, Lede New Orleans invested in organizationalstability and editorial quality by retaining and strengthening key program staff and contractorroles critical to its mission.? Lede retained core roles including its Fellowship Coordinator, Engagement Coordinatorand Operations Coordinator ensuring continuity in program design and support, and inadministrative and financial processes and oversight.? The organization hired a part-time Senior Editor to provide additional editorial oversightand strengthen the quality, accuracy, and rigor of content produced through theCommunity Reporting Fellowship.? Lede also engaged three professional mentors to support fellows reporting andmultimedia production, providing subject-matter expertise, coaching, and feedbackthroughout the fellowship cycle.These capacity-building investments strengthened Ledes ability to deliver high-qualityjournalism, support emerging storytellers, and sustain its programs with consistency and care.
In November 2025, Lede piloted a new live storytelling event featuring five localspeakers sharing stories of home to an audience of more than 50 locals.? Lede was awarded a $100,000 grant from Press Forward in 2024, recognizing theorganizations role in addressing gaps in local news coverage and strengtheningcommunity-led journalism in New Orleans.? Lede and two of our fellowship alumni were featured on the Voices of I Am New Orleansaudio series funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.? Lede and five fellowship alumni partnered with Be Loud Studios to support editing andmentorship for local high schoolers working on audio stories about their perspectives onHurricane Katrina and its impact.
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $289,818.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $24k to $323k (+1247%).
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.
100% of LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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
Jennifer Larino
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $15k → $551k.
3 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC’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
LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
35% 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 LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 66% · 2023 45% — 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
LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC draws 81% of its grant income from funders outside Louisiana, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $236k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC
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 Louisiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC: 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 LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC?
- LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC (Louisiana) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,499,109 to it, the largest being CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION ($650,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $1,499,109 in grants to LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC?
- CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEDE NEW ORLEANS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Louisiana. 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 Lede New Orleans →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 9 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