Washington · Nonprofit
SIFF
SIFF (Washington) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,485,144 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($2,059,904). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.5M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $5.5M
- Net assets
- $-647334
What Siff does
Mission
Siff is a seattle-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Siff hosts the annual seattle international film festival traditionally attracting nearly 150,000 attendees to celebrate films from more than 80 countries and regions around the world. Many of the features, short films, and documentaries we screen will not have a return to us cinemas, making it an amazing event to discover new and underrepresented voices and stories.the seattle international film festival draws more than 140,000 attendees annually. Siff's education programming includes filmmaker training and film appreciation for both youth and adults. Our education programs reach approximately 10,000 annually.
$5,604,605 spent$2,601,668 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,604,605.
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 2022 to 2023, from $5.5M to $12M (+118%).
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 3% · 2018 4% · 2019 5% · 2020 6% · 2021 44% · 2022 24% · 2023 16% · 2024 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
45% of SIFF’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% 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.
Chief executive
Thomas Mara
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2019 and FY2020, and between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $107k → $358k.
13 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 SIFF’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
SIFF has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 38% 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
76% 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 SIFF.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 22% · 2019 22% · 2020 55% · 2021 87% · 2022 38% · 2023 33% — 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
47% of SIFF'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
69% of SIFF'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 $1.7M that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
SIFF's revenue grew 37% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding SIFF receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $515k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$515k
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 SIFF
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 Washington
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
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SIFF: 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 SIFF?
- SIFF (Washington) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,485,144 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($2,059,904). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SIFF have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $5,485,144 in grants to SIFF, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIFF?
- SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,059,904 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIFF find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Siff →
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 34 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