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Michigan · Nonprofit

LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION

LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,077,761 to it, the largest being JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION ($3,420,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$6.7M
Funders on record
72
Grants received
$15M
Net assets
$4.0M
26/72 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 61%
01What it does

What Local Media Foundation does

Mission

Local Media Foundation's mission is to ensure a healthy future for local journalism, which is essential to a strong democracy, by reinventing business models for news.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Word in black is a collaboration with 10 of the nation's leading black publishers. Industry collaboration is one of lmf's core pillars; wib focuses on content sharing, research, and publisher sustainability.

    $1,898,261 spentof which $1,663,119 as grants$582,685 earned by the program
    26% of program spending

  2. Local news fund - supports journalism projects in communities accross the country focused on important issues such as education, poverty, health, and more. Several dozen local and national media companies are clients.

    $2,560,440 spentof which $2,555,301 as grants$156,742 earned by the program
    36% of program spending

  3. Knight x lma bloomlab shared services- one of several labs focused on driving sustainability for local news publishers.

    $549,566 spent$76,500 earned by the program
    8% of program spending

  4. Branded content project, economic mobility voices, fims lab, knight x lma bloomlab, lab for journalism, latidobeat, legal fund, news is out, ny/mi solutions journalism collaboration, oklahoma media center, queer media sustainability, solving sacramento, state summits.

    $2,179,386 spentof which $427,662 as grants$516,132 earned by the program
    30% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,187,653.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($488k) Expenses 100 ($458k) Net assets 100 ($45k)2018 Revenue 96 ($470k) Expenses 101 ($461k) Net assets 120 ($54k)2019 Revenue 327 ($1.6M) Expenses 305 ($1.4M) Net assets 551 ($250k)2020 Revenue 1131 ($5.5M) Expenses 1078 ($4.9M) Net assets 1829 ($828k)2021 Revenue 411 ($2.0M) Expenses 518 ($2.4M) Net assets 1009 ($457k)2022 Revenue 1182 ($5.8M) Expenses 993 ($4.6M) Net assets 3616 ($1.6M)2023 Revenue 1350 ($6.6M) Expenses 1307 ($6.0M) Net assets 4963 ($2.2M)2024 Revenue 1924 ($9.4M) Expenses 1441 ($6.6M) Net assets 11116 ($5.0M)2025 Revenue 1382 ($6.7M) Expenses 1711 ($7.8M) Net assets 8725 ($4.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (1382)Expenses (1711)Net assets (8725)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 2023 to 2024, from $4.3M to $6.3M (+46%).

$92k
$1.1M
$917k
$2.2M
$3.5M
$4.5M
$4.3M
$6.3M
$6.1M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

77% of LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,814 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$30k
’17
$9k
’18
$195k
’19
$579k
’20
−$369k
’21
$1.2M
’22
$597k
’23
$2.8M
’24
−$1.1M
’25
9.1
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.

Board chair

Tanisha Leonard

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed121414141520192122
Joined·+6+5+1+5+9+4+5+5
No longer listed·45144534
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $3.2M.

Funder
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
'25*
total
funders
24
11
17
26
24
12

20 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $43k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Local Media Foundation); $14k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Local Media Association). These are real filings, and they are not money LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION raised.

From the IRS filings of LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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

LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

43% 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 LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION.

23%
largest funder
48%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 84% · 2021 28% · 2022 40% · 2023 27% — 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

21% of LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 24 states in all.

AK
ME
WA
MT
IL
WI
NY
WY
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
VA
DE
AR
NC
DC
OK
GA
TX
FL

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

’20
’21
’22
’23
Michigan out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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

LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−16% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve9.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)39% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION

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 Michigan

Local Journalism Foundation Inc78%Business Leaders for Michigan Foundation77%Local First of West Michigan77%Lenawee Community Foundation77%American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute77%Local First Educational Foundation77%Public Media Network76%Michigan Chamber Foundation76%

Nationally

The Local Journalism Project Inc81%Rebuild Local News80%Law Library Microform Consortium79%Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Foundation79%Larchmont-Mamaroneck Community Television Inc79%National Trust for Local News79%Greater Louisville Foundation Inc79%Public Media Company79%
05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

92% of spending goes to programs.

Program 92%Management 8%Fundraising 0%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MI

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • Local Media Association · exempt
  • Suburban Network Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION?
LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,077,761 to it, the largest being JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION ($3,420,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $15,077,761 in grants to LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION?
JOHN S AND JAMES L KNIGHT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,420,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LOCAL MEDIA FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 72 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