Skip to content

California · Nonprofit

SENTIENT MEDIA

SENTIENT MEDIA (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,976,588 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($1,582,204). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$2.2M
Funders on record
25
Grants received
$4.0M
Net assets
$2.2M
14/25 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 76%
01What it does

What Sentient Media does

Mission

Sentient Media ("sentient") (sentientmedia.org) is an independent and nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to illuminating the impacts of factory farming on climate, animals, public health and more. Through fact-checked, science-based journalism, we uncover injustices, highlight solutions, and inform communities, lawmakers, newsrooms and content creators.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Audience engagement - sentient works to ensure important headlines and stories reach a broad audience. Sentient partners with local and national newsrooms to ensure our stories have a wide and diverse reach.

    $324,653 spent
    35% of program spending
  2. Reporting and investigations - in fy2024, sentient published more than 200 articles on the impacts of factory farms. Sentient's journalism falls into four areas: solutions; accountability; disinformation debunking; and policy and science-driven explainers.

    $265,628 spent
    28% of program spending
  3. Partnership and training sentient's approach is to collaborate with other news outlets to coreport, copublish, and republish stories on factory farming. Sentient provides resources to help build the capacity of other newsrooms to report accurately on the varied impacts of factory farms.

    $158,054 spent
    17% of program spending
  4. Digital services - optimizing explainer articles to ensure the visibility of high-quality, informative content in search engines. Fellowships - editorial fellows work with the editorial team on articles, fact-checking and newsletters.

    $191,544 spent$50,540 earned by the program
    20% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $939,879.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($353k) Expenses 100 ($214k) Net assets 100 ($114k)2020 Revenue 108 ($380k) Expenses 201 ($428k) Net assets 58 ($66k)2021 Revenue 189 ($667k) Expenses 215 ($460k) Net assets 240 ($274k)2022 Revenue 238 ($838k) Expenses 322 ($687k) Net assets 373 ($425k)2023 Revenue 382 ($1.3M) Expenses 381 ($814k) Net assets 854 ($974k)2024 Revenue 634 ($2.2M) Expenses 559 ($1.2M) Net assets 1941 ($2.2M)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (634)Expenses (559)Net assets (1941)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $982k to $2.3M (+130%).

$114k
$69k
$289k
$440k
$982k
$2.3M
201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

98% of SENTIENT MEDIA’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (74% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,665 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$139k
’19
−$48k
’20
$208k
’21
$152k
’22
$534k
’23
$1.0M
’24
17
months of
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

Anna Bradley

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201920202021202220232024
Listed444455
Joined·+0+0+0+1+0
No longer listed·00000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 15 funders, grant income rose $85k → $1.0M.

9 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 67% 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 SENTIENT MEDIA’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

SENTIENT MEDIA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 59%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

81% 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 SENTIENT MEDIA.

40%
largest funder
59%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 90% · 2021 45% · 2022 31% · 2023 25% — 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

50% of SENTIENT MEDIA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

67% of SENTIENT MEDIA's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.3M that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from California funders.

IL
NY
MA
IN
PA
CA
MD
DE
KS
DC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SENTIENT MEDIA runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,559 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin47% · top quartile
Months of reserve17.4mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)45% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,559 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like SENTIENT MEDIA

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 17%Fundraising 4%

Governance

4
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

50%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SENTIENT MEDIA: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 SENTIENT MEDIA?
SENTIENT MEDIA (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,976,588 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($1,582,204). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does SENTIENT MEDIA have?
IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $3,976,588 in grants to SENTIENT MEDIA, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SENTIENT MEDIA?
VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $1,582,204 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SENTIENT MEDIA 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 Sentient Media →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 25 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing