Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MILWAUKEE FILM INC
MILWAUKEE FILM INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,441,012 to it, the largest being RICHARD AND ETHEL HERZFELD FOUNDATION INC ($2,801,500). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $9.4M
- Net assets
- $5.3M
What Milwaukee Film Inc does
Mission
To entertain, educate and engage our community through cinematic experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Milwaukee film festival - screening of award-winning documentaries, feature length, and short films that were hand-picked as the best from the global festival circuit.
$563,951 spent$887,623 earned by the program14% of program spendingCinema - operational components of the oriental theatre, including on-screen programming, concessions, venue rentals and special events.
$3,498,817 spent$2,086,369 earned by the program86% of program spendingEducation - facilitates our youth education programs, including reel talks, which coordinates filmmaker visits to local schools, and education screenings for students, as well as programs to support local filmmakers and the community at large.
$1,070 spentof which $1,070 as grants$15,478 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,063,838.
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 2021 to 2022, from $11M to $23M (+103%).
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: 2020 7% · 2021 20% · 2022 11% · 2023 4% · 2024 2% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
40% of MILWAUKEE FILM INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Susan Kerns
Executive director
Board chair
Lacey Sadoff
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $616k → $1.1M.
12 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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: $623k from 8 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money MILWAUKEE FILM INC raised.
From the IRS filings of MILWAUKEE FILM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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
MILWAUKEE FILM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 MILWAUKEE FILM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 51% · 2019 28% · 2020 61% · 2021 37% · 2022 31% · 2023 34% — 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
38% of MILWAUKEE FILM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
95% of MILWAUKEE FILM INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
MILWAUKEE FILM INC's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 22 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MILWAUKEE FILM INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $350k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$350k
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 MILWAUKEE FILM 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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ifm Farwell LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MILWAUKEE FILM 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 MILWAUKEE FILM INC?
- MILWAUKEE FILM INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,441,012 to it, the largest being RICHARD AND ETHEL HERZFELD FOUNDATION INC ($2,801,500). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MILWAUKEE FILM INC have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $9,441,012 in grants to MILWAUKEE FILM INC, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MILWAUKEE FILM INC?
- RICHARD AND ETHEL HERZFELD FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,801,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MILWAUKEE FILM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 66 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