Illinois · Nonprofit
PUBLIC NARRATIVE
PUBLIC NARRATIVE (Illinois) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,575,075 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($610,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $329k
What Public Narrative does
Mission
Public Narrative teaches journalists and non-profit organizations to tell better stories in order to fulfill our missions to support a free and informed press, and to ensure that non-profit and neighborhood voices are heard, and are part of the conversation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Public Narrative trains and supports journalists to produce accurate, ethical, and community-centered reporting. During the year, Public Narrative facilitated listening sessions that convene neighborhood leaders, community-based organizations, and media professionals to address issues such as diversity and inequality in media coverage. Public Narrative provides training on journalism best practices and resources to strengthen reporting capacity. These activities strengthen connections between journalists and the communities they serve and support more inclusive and representative media coverage.
$582,267 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $582,267.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $81k to $512k (+529%).
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 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 22% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of PUBLIC NARRATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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.
Board chair
Derrick Fleming Jr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $27k → $496k.
7 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 PUBLIC NARRATIVE’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
PUBLIC NARRATIVE 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
46% 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 PUBLIC NARRATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 61% · 2020 39% · 2021 32% · 2022 32% · 2023 33% — 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
33% of PUBLIC NARRATIVE'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
92% of PUBLIC NARRATIVE's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $976k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
PUBLIC NARRATIVE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PUBLIC NARRATIVE
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
43%
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 PUBLIC NARRATIVE: 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 PUBLIC NARRATIVE?
- PUBLIC NARRATIVE (Illinois) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,575,075 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($610,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PUBLIC NARRATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $2,575,075 in grants to PUBLIC NARRATIVE, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PUBLIC NARRATIVE?
- JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $610,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PUBLIC NARRATIVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 20 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