California · Nonprofit
SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL
SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $411,474 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($187,474). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $178k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $411k
- Net assets
- $15k
What Silicon Valley African Film Festival does
Mission
The mission of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) is to promote an understanding and appreciation of Africa and Africans through moving images. The specific purposes for which this corporation is organized are: 1.) Curate a world-class festival of African films and provide audiences access to the richness, diversity and vitality of Africa's creative expressions. 2.) Promote cultural literacy by hosting community forums, events and programs that provide our community an opportunity to engage and interact with Africa's content creators on issues of personal, local and global significance. 3.) Promote ideas exchange and collaborations between African, African diaspora and global content creators and allied services practitioners.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
The Silicon Valley African Film Festival exclusively focuses on films made by African and African diaspora filmmakers and, crucially, provides audiences with exquisite lenses to the real Africa. We have built a substantial following and have become an annual destination film event in Silicon Valley that draws out of state and international guests. Programs of the film festival include: our flagship weekend showcase in October, the year-round African Cinema Cafe Series and Africa in the Classroom Film Series. 1.) The Film Festival Weekend was held on October 9-12, 2025. The festival screened 95 films from 32 countries with 28 filmmakers in attendance. About 1500 people attended the program to watch the films, enjoy live performances and participate in the several panel discussions and workshops we offered. Over 50% of the films screened at SVAFF 2025 were World / North America premieres and by female directors.
$144,000 spentof which $144,000 as grants81% of program spendingAfrican Cinema Cafe Series: Year round community screenings of select films in community spaces. Our cafe series is our community outreach, partnership and audience development program. It offers us the opportunity to take films to the people in more intimate settings with the flexibility to present films that speak to specific audiences on their own turf. The scope and scale of our Cinema Cafe has expanded in geometric proportions over the years we began delivering the program as a virtual program. We have positioned our Cinema Cafe as a pathway to community courageous conversations. We continued to hold our Cinema Cafe as a monthly virtual program throughout 2025 and had a lot of success. Our films continue to provoke and stimulate conversations on issues of race, gender, identity were screened and filmmakers, invited panelists and community members engaged in very fruitful conversations.
$23,260 spentof which $23,260 as grants13% of program spendingAfrica in the Classroom Film Series: Our school engagement initiative brings curriculum related films to local elementary, middle and high schools for use in classrooms. SVAFF sends facilitators to present the films and engage students in conversations. Some schools sometimes opt for a more elaborate assembly style presentation that includes our African drumming and dance ensemble. We served 8 schools in 2025, including a 1st grade classroom.
$10,500 spentof which $10,500 as grants6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $177,760.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2019 to 2020, from $484 to $6k (+1058%).
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.
58% of SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Chike Nwoffiah
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $1k → $81k.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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
SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
82% 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 SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 58% · 2021 56% · 2022 64% · 2023 62% — 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.
Where its funders are
55% of SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL'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 $184k that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $227k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL
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.
Public support
100%
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 SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL: 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 SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL?
- SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $411,474 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($187,474). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $411,474 in grants to SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $187,474 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SILICON VALLEY AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL 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 Silicon Valley African 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 7 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