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Ohio · Nonprofit

Media Working Group

Media Working Group (Ohio) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $148,396 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($41,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$64k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$148k
Net assets
$-24937
4/8 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 56%
01What it does

What Media Working Group does

Mission

Media Working Group, Inc (MWG) provides capacity and infra-structure for artists, educators, writers and researchers to conduct their work in a non-commercial environment. It supports projects that intervene in mass media culture and help media artists realize the potential for participating in emerging local and global cultures. MWG works to inform us and make us aware of the importance of independent media and diverse media art forms which further self-representation, diversity and community development. MWG promotes media literacy education as a means of creating an informed citizenry and to strengthen our democratic society.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Media Working Group (MWG)encourages the public's understanding and appreciation of the artistic and cultural impact of the multi-media arts by:1. Presenting Media Literacy, Networked Media Production Training and education programs;2. Participating in exhibitions and workshops;3. Supporting the creation and distribution of video, film and networked media by artists;4. Collaborating and co-producing media art with non-profit community institutions.MWG supports non-commercial film makers, writers, multi-media producers, researchers and educators. Support includes access to high definition video equipment packages, office space and a web site with a collectively managed store and production catalogue. MWG also provides web hosting services for individual project sites and blogs. MWG provides support, education and training to artists for the creation and maintenance of their own web sites. Other services include project management, fund development, accounting, IRS reporting, curriculum development, promotion, event management, public engagement development and implementation.

    $113,823 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $113,823.

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 ($96k) Expenses 100 ($86k) Net assets 100 ($24k)2018 Revenue 98 ($94k) Expenses 122 ($104k) Net assets 50 ($12k)2019 Revenue 77 ($74k) Expenses 94 ($80k) Net assets 15 ($4k)2020 Revenue 94 ($90k) Expenses 62 ($53k) Net assets 169 ($41k)2021 Revenue 49 ($47k) Expenses 87 ($75k) Net assets 64 ($15k)2022 Revenue 1613 ($1.5M) Expenses 1083 ($930k) Net assets 2630 ($633k)2023 Revenue 224 ($215k) Expenses 984 ($846k) Net assets -24 ($-5759)2024 Revenue 131 ($126k) Expenses 168 ($144k) Net assets -30 ($-7170)2025 Revenue 67 ($64k) Expenses 96 ($82k) Net assets -104 ($-24937)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (67)Expenses (96)Net assets (-104)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 $670k to $30k (−95%).

$24k
$12k
$11k
$80k
$52k
$670k
$30k
$30k
$12k
'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

Government-grant reliance: 2022 1% · 2023 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

77% of Media Working Group’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (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. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$10k
’17
−$10k
’18
−$7k
’19
$37k
’20
−$28k
’21
$617k
’22
−$630k
’23
−$19k
’24
−$18k
’25
0.4
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.

20222023
Listed44
Joined·+0
No longer listed·0
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $18k → $15k.

3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 Media Working Group’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

Media Working Group leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.

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

66% 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 Media Working Group.

28%
largest funder
70%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 37% · 2020 56% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.

“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

17% of Media Working Group's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

Media Working Group draws 56% of its grant income from funders outside Ohio, across 3 states in all.

OH
CT
CA

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’23
Ohio out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Media Working Group's revenue fell 33% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−28% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−5% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like Media Working Group

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 Ohio

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Public support

97%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 3 states

OR
OH
KY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Media Working Group: 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 Media Working Group?
Media Working Group (Ohio) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $148,396 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($41,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Media Working Group have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $148,396 in grants to Media Working Group, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Media Working Group?
THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT is the largest funder on record, with $41,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Media Working Group find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Media Working Group →

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 8 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