California · Nonprofit
Mu Films
Mu Films (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,164 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($30,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $42k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $123k
- Net assets
- $15k
What Mu Films does
Mission
The mission is to produce and distribute documentaries and educational media about social, political and cultural issues with a focus on untold stories from under represented communities. The goal is to use media to bring about social justice, promote cultural understanding and encourage positive social change.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
MU FILMSPROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2024In 2024, Mu Films continued distribution of its films to educational institutions throughout the U.S., and continued production on our newest documentaries, Relative Strangers and Viviens Wild Ride. Our activities are described below.Crossings DistributionCrossings tells the story of international women including Nobel Peace Prize winners who are working for peace on the Korean peninsula. In 2024, Crossings was made available on the PBS channel and on Amazon Prime. The film also screened at UC Berkeleys Center for Korean Studies and continues to be made available to colleges and universities through the educational distributor Collective Eye.Geographies of Kinship Exhibition Geographies of Kinship looks at the history of international adoption from Korea through the eyes of people who have been adopted to the U.S. and Europe. The film screened as part of "70 Years of Korean Adoption: Wandering Memory, Traces Beyond," at the Seoul Int'l Cinema & Media Festival (Nemaf 2024). Geographies of Kinship also screened in The Netherlands as part of a week-long program about adoption called Far From Here.Relative Strangers ProductionMu Films continued…
$62,061 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $62,061.
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 2017 to 2018, from $3k to $43k (+1306%).
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.
65% of Mu Films’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Board chair
Helen Kim
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $20k → $34.
2 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 Mu Films’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
Mu Films has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
72% 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 Mu Films.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 80% · 2021 50% · 2022 48% · 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
25% of Mu Films's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 25% 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
62% of Mu Films's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Mu Films has grown faster than three-quarters of the 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like Mu Films
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.
Public support
70%
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 Mu Films: 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 Mu Films?
- Mu Films (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,164 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($30,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Mu Films have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $123,164 in grants to Mu Films, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mu Films?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $30,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mu Films 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.
Play a game about who funds Mu Films →
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 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