New York · Nonprofit
THE 74 MEDIA INC
THE 74 MEDIA INC (New York) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,978,263 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($6,601,800). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.2M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $6.1M
What The 74 Media Inc does
Mission
The 74 is a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in america. We believe our public education system is in crisis. In the united states, fewer than half our students can read or do math at grade-level, yet the education debate is dominated by misinformation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Student progress (and struggles) after covid: now four years removed from the first classroom closures caused by covid, 2024 proved to be a pivotal year in confronting student absenteeism and declining school enrollment trends and covering the rapid expansion of innovative school models, as families sought alternative education options. The 74 was committed to covering this sea change in the educational system, from shifting family preferences to the emergence of a new wave of educational entrepreneurs and emerging state policies that gave families greater autonomy in pursuing alternative educational settings.
$707,643 spent20% of program spendingThe future of college and career: 2024 saw continued disruptions to the nation's college pipeline and a corresponding reassessment of high school diplomas. How should today's high school graduates be prepared for both college and career today? And how should the high school experience be reconceived, to better prepare the teens of 2024 for the future workforce? The 74 dedicated significant bandwidth to exploring these questions, by continuing our "future of high school" series that cast a spotlight on the most unique campuses across the nation. From workforce preparedness to better support for high school grads transitioning to both community colleges and four-year programs, our journalists covered the campuses on the cutting edge of a high school revolution.
$530,732 spent$300 earned by the program15% of program spendingEducation technology and the rise of ai tools: we deepened our feature reporting about the creation of classroom tools to aid both teachers in their jobs and students in their learning. As we put a spotlight on artificial intelligence, we also prioritized coverage of how educators are being brought into the innovative process and case studies of how new tools are being deployed (both successfully and unsuccessfully) in the classroom setting.
$247,675 spent7% of program spendingSchool data security and student privacy: the 74 continued its award winning coverage of school technology and cybersecurity, including additional coverage of cyberattacks that resulted in significant data breaches and the leaking of confidential student data. As schools continue to serve as major targets of opportunity for hackers, and as the number of such data incidents skyrocketed over the past few years, the 74 has turned a greater share of its attention to focusing on how these attacks impact school operations, student data and district budgets.
$176,911 spent5% of program spendingEarly childhood development: the 74 made a strategic investment in expanding our coverage of early education and childhood development issues. In the summer of 2024, the organization formalized a partnership with early learning nation to launch new coverage of children aged zero to 5, and to further amplify early learning nation's archive of content to our national mainstream audience. We intend to expand this work further in 2025.
$176,911 spent5% of program spendingOther program services: expanded the search and impact of the 74 through a powerful mix of editorial, video, audience development initiatives, live events and media opportunities.
$1,698,345 spent48% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,538,217.
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 $3.2M to $7.1M (+119%).
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: 2021 7% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of THE 74 MEDIA INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Steven Snyder
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $435k → $3.3M.
6 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 THE 74 MEDIA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
THE 74 MEDIA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
41% 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 THE 74 MEDIA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 54% · 2019 80% · 2020 47% · 2021 57% · 2022 31% · 2023 41% — 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
20% of THE 74 MEDIA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
THE 74 MEDIA INC draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
THE 74 MEDIA INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE 74 MEDIA 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
53%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 10 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE 74 MEDIA 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 THE 74 MEDIA INC?
- THE 74 MEDIA INC (New York) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,978,263 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($6,601,800). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE 74 MEDIA INC have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $20,978,263 in grants to THE 74 MEDIA INC, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE 74 MEDIA INC?
- Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $6,601,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE 74 MEDIA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 74 Media →
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 33 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