California · Nonprofit
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,263,921 to it, the largest being MANITOU FUND ($1,625,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $6.3M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Santa Barbara International Film Festival Inc does
Mission
Sbiff's mission is to engage, enrich, and inspire people through the power of film. Sbiff celebrates the art of cinema and provides impactful educational experiences for their local, national, andglobal communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The organization promotes and produces the santa barbara international film festival, with events occurring primarily in january, february or march for 95,000+ participants.
$4,289,693 spent$4,369,798 earned by the program66% of program spendingThe organization operates a year round arthouse theatre. Its programming includes daily showings of current and critically acclaimed independent and international films, week long festivals, includingfrench films and social justice films, retrospectives and a membership based cinema society.
$1,383,725 spent$855,293 earned by the program21% of program spendingThe organization operates the barbakow family center for film studies that serves as a classroom, screening room, community meeting space, movie library and editing suite. Its programming includes education programs that reach over 14,000 people each year including at-risk and under-served youth, low-income families and their children, and transit-dependent senior citizens. All current programs are at no charge to its participants.
$804,245 spent12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,477,663.
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 2024 to 2025, from $10M to $15M (+45%).
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 1% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 5% · 2022 12% · 2023 6% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
48% of SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Roger Durling
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $588k → $700k.
15 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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: $250k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Santa Barbara Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC raised.
From the IRS filings of SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
50% 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 SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 35% · 2019 57% · 2020 47% · 2021 32% · 2022 26% · 2023 43% — 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
48% of SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC draws 56% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 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 SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC?
- SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,263,921 to it, the largest being MANITOU FUND ($1,625,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $6,263,921 in grants to SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC?
- MANITOU FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,625,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC 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 Santa Barbara International Film Festival →
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 58 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