California · Nonprofit
San Francisco Film Society
San Francisco Film Society (California) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,246,890 to it, the largest being KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION ($4,725,000). 57 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.8M
- Funders on record
- 109
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What San Francisco Film Society does
Mission
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through our film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
2024, SFFILM presented a robust slate of in-person events for the Festival and Year Round activities, including Family screenings, Doc Stories, and special programming
$2,167,375 spentof which $1,006 as grants$221,116 earned by the program60% of program spendingArtist Development offers grants, residencies, and professional development to filmmakers and the filmmaker community in the Bay Area. Through mentorship and creative advisor relationships, in-person and virtual networking sessions, and funding across narrative and documentary films, SFFILM fosters filmmaker development at all stages.
$1,037,187 spentof which $545,785 as grants$162,180 earned by the program29% of program spendingSFFILMs education programs serve more than 15,000 students, teachers, and families each year, from kindergarten through college, to develop media literacy, filmmaking skills, cultural awareness, global understanding, and a lifelong appreciation of cinema. Programs and resources include film screenings with filmmaker q&as, filmmaker school visits and study guides, workshops, youth media exhibitions, youth filmmaker residencies, internships, and mentorships. In 2024, SFFILM expanded in-person offerings and continued to offer virtual opportunities to reach as many students and educators as possible.
$395,242 spentof which $10,132 as grants$-21,277 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,599,804.
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.
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 $3.9M to $1.9M (−52%).
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: 2017 4% · 2018 3% · 2019 3% · 2020 15% · 2021 16% · 2022 14% · 2023 3% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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 narrowed from 46 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $1.9M.
26 of 109 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 San Francisco Film Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 109 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
San Francisco Film Society has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
39% 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 San Francisco Film Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 16% · 2018 20% · 2019 26% · 2020 38% · 2021 48% · 2022 57% · 2023 41% — growing more concentrated.
“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
27% of San Francisco Film Society's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
68% of San Francisco Film Society's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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.
Government funding San Francisco Film Society receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $359k on record.
- Department of the Interior$204k
- National Endowment for the Arts$155k
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 San Francisco 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for San Francisco 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 San Francisco Film Society?
- San Francisco Film Society (California) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,246,890 to it, the largest being KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION ($4,725,000). 57 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does San Francisco Film Society have?
- IRS filings report 109 organizations giving $18,246,890 in grants to San Francisco Film Society, 57 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of San Francisco Film Society?
- KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,725,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like San Francisco Film Society 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 San Francisco Film Society →
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 109 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