Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY
PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,214,968 to it, the largest being WYNCOTE FOUNDATION ($1,813,000). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.4M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Philadelphia Film Society does
Mission
The Philadelphia Film Society (pfs) is the region's home for classic and contemporary film presentation, education, entertainment, and community building. A nonprofit, community-supported organization, pfs produces the acclaimed philadelphia film festival, curates an extensive year-round film program celebrating the past and future of world cinema, and provides education and community outreach programs, all serving to raise awareness of film as an important art form and vital piece of philadelphia's arts and culture community. Presented at the philadelphia film center, pfs bourse, and pfs east theaters, the film society's offerings include film series with a unique global and local perspective, movies on the block, pfs on us, and pfs teacher residencies across philadelphia schools. For more information, visit www.filmadelphia.org.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Philadelphia film center: the philadelphia film center is an exciting performance venue in the heart of downtown philadelphia featuring the largest screen in the city. The philadelphia film center is located at broad and chestnut streets on the avenue of the arts and hosts an extensive slate of curated film screenings, film previews and premieres, and live events in two state-of-the-art theaters.
$948,689 spent$1,219,754 earned by the program34% of program spendingPfs bourse: the Philadelphia Film Society proudly operates and programs the pfs bourse, a five-screen, 776-seat theater located in the heart of old city, philadelphia. Pfs reopened the former ritz at the bourse theater in 2021 with programming focusing on critically-acclaimed first-run indie and art house films along with curated content. Prior to the reopening, the pfs bourse underwent a complete renovation including an interior facelift, installation of 4k and 2k laser projectors and 7.1 dolby digital surround sound in all five theaters, and an updated lower lobby concession area, all transforming the theater into a state-of-the-art venue optimal for film presentation.
$1,199,146 spent$1,421,882 earned by the program43% of program spendingPfs east: the most recent theater under pfs management, the pfs east is a 2-screen, 550-seat theater located in old city, philadelphia, next to welcome park. Acquired for use in october of 2022 for the philadelphia film festival, pfs permanently reopened the former ritz east in november 2022 with a focus on first-run blockbuster and prestige titles alongside occasional curated film selections from pfs's programming team.
$623,723 spent$497,122 earned by the program22% of program spendingPhiladelphia film festival: every october, the Philadelphia Film Society hosts the philadelphia film festival which gathers more than 25,000 dedicated film lovers and scores of talented filmmakers for eleven exceptional days of cinematic splendor. Throughout the year, pfs's artistic team scours the world's most prestigious film festivals - from sundance to berlin, cannes to toronto - for the year's most highly anticipated, critically acclaimed, and thought-provoking films. The festival presents these films as well as selections from the hundreds of submitted films viewed by festival programmers, all alongside exclusive events with actors, directors, and industry guests; vip receptions; and much more. As a world-class film festival, the festival represents a major contribution to the cultural life of the city and region, attracting new audiences to pfs and the film community at large.
$20,952 spent$551,521 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,792,510.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2019 to 2020, from $7.1M to $8.6M (+20%).
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: 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
46% of PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY’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 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $79k → $310k.
4 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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: $409k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Philadelphia Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 45% · 2019 71% · 2020 33% · 2021 59% · 2022 27% · 2023 67% — 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
26% of PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
86% of PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $121k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$20k
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 PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
50% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY: 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 PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY?
- PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,214,968 to it, the largest being WYNCOTE FOUNDATION ($1,813,000). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $3,214,968 in grants to PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY?
- WYNCOTE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,813,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Philadelphia Film Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 47 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