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California · Nonprofit

SIMA STUDIOS

SIMA STUDIOS (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,536,705 to it, the largest being Mozaik Philanthropy Inc ($154,375). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$655k
Funders on record
39
Grants received
$1.5M
Net assets
$122k
17/39 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Sima Studios does

Mission

Sima is an arts organization that advances global awareness, social justice, human rights, and educaiton by supporting content creators, activists, educators and change-makers on the front lines of social change, and amplifyingthe impact of their works to inspire activism, compassion, and social transformation.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Sima's fiscal sponsorship program allows us to elevate projects in all stages of development, production,post-production,distribution,outreach, and impact campaigns,helping creators and creative activists who may ohterwise not be able to secure the funding they need to see their projects financed, finished, and unleashed to have impact.

    $496,792 spent$589,695 earned by the program
    94% of program spending
  2. Since 2012, the annual social impact media awards have set new standards of creativity and integrity in social impact,storytelling,honoring eye opening documentary filmmaking and vr experiences that exemplify excellence in their potential to inspire social change.each year,projects are selected from over 140 countries around the world, competing for awards, cash prizes, media features,and entry into sima's impact distribution channels.

    $26,348 spent
    5% of program spending
  3. Sima classroom is our diverse and expansive "netflix for changemakers", offering an unprecedent collection of contemporary current affairs media that give students a first-person insight into the pulse, the people, and the movements behind today's global issues, taking them from empathy and critical thinking to action.

    $4,735 spent
    1% of program spending
  4. Grants and other assistance to domestic individuals; salaries, employees benefits, insurance, payroll tax, it consulting fees, bank fees, merchant fees, dues and subcriptions and mis office expenses

    $275 spent
    0% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $528,150.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($159k) Expenses 100 ($136k) Net assets 100 ($52k)2020 Revenue 102 ($163k) Expenses 131 ($178k) Net assets 40 ($21k)2021 Revenue 441 ($701k) Expenses 522 ($708k) Net assets 25 ($13k)2022 Revenue 423 ($672k) Expenses 475 ($645k) Net assets 77 ($40k)2023 Revenue 653 ($1.0M) Expenses 730 ($990k) Net assets 167 ($87k)2024 Revenue 1773 ($2.8M) Expenses 1980 ($2.7M) Net assets 415 ($216k)2025 Revenue 412 ($655k) Expenses 551 ($748k) Net assets 234 ($122k)
2017202020212022202320242025
Revenue (412)Expenses (551)Net assets (234)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 $103k to $225k (+117%).

$61k
$21k
$113k
$54k
$103k
$225k
$122k
2017202020212022202320242025
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.

2017
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

10% of SIMA STUDIOS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (91% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 23,870 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$23k
’17
−$15k
’20
−$8k
’21
$27k
’22
$47k
’23
$129k
’24
−$94k
’25
2.0
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

Daniela Kon Lieberberg

CEO

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

20212022202320242025
Listed33333
Joined·+1+2+0+1
No longer listed·1201
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 12 funders, grant income rose $20k → $243k.

15 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 SIMA STUDIOS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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

SIMA STUDIOS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 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 SIMA STUDIOS.

10%
largest funder
27%
top three
~19
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 37% · 2021 16% · 2022 24% · 2023 33% — 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

18% of SIMA STUDIOS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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

SIMA STUDIOS draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 9 states in all.

MN
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
CA
DE
DC

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

’17
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $692k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SIMA STUDIOS has grown faster than half of the 13,062 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−14% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)19% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,062 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like SIMA STUDIOS

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

71% of spending goes to programs.

Program 71%Management 29%Fundraising 0%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

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

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SIMA STUDIOS: 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.

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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 SIMA STUDIOS?
SIMA STUDIOS (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,536,705 to it, the largest being Mozaik Philanthropy Inc ($154,375). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SIMA STUDIOS have?
IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $1,536,705 in grants to SIMA STUDIOS, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SIMA STUDIOS?
Mozaik Philanthropy Inc is the largest funder on record, with $154,375 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SIMA STUDIOS 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 Sima Studios →

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 39 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