California · Nonprofit
The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc
The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc (California) receives grants from 130 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,630,220 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,868,332). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $533k
- Funders on record
- 130
- Grants received
- $38M
- Net assets
- $0
What The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc does
Mission
The Center for Investigative Reporting CIR engages and empowers the public through investigative journalism and groundbreaking storytelling that sparks action improves lives and protects our democracy.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
Effective February 1 2024 The Center for Investigative Reporting merged with Mother Jones forming a news outlet that reaches millions of people each month through in-depth reporting across social media websites video radio podcast and print. The integrated newsroom will continue to produce Mother Jones magazine and website the Reveal radio show and podcast and documentary films.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
The Center for Investigative Reporting produces the public radio show and podcast REVEAL which airs on over 500 public radio stations. REVEAL is a co-production with PRX and features investigative reporting from our newsrooms as well as stories from other newsrooms and freelance reporters. We produce long-form investigative stories in the public interest. Our text stories are published on our website and with partners. We cover a range of urgent topics: immigration threats to democracy policing and the legal system gender violence and the rights of women climate and the environment and the winner-take-all economy. We equip local news outlets with the resources to carry out deep investigative work increase the distribution of our reporting and empower journalists nationwide to produce localized versions of our major investigations enabling our stores to reach diverse audiences through our REVEAL reporting networks and national coverage collaborations. We produce video documentaries and television to marry our in-depth reporting with cinematic storytelling for broad distributions. Our video products have aired on Netflix Oxygen PBS Newshour Al Jazeera and other video platforms.
$689,488 spent$13,511 earned by the program100% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $689,488.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $7.4M to $4.2M (−43%).
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 12% · 2022 19% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 48 funders to 38 funders, grant income fell $4.2M → $2.6M.
31 of 130 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 Center for Investigative Reporting Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 130 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 Center for Investigative Reporting Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
33% 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 Center for Investigative Reporting Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 24% · 2019 16% · 2020 10% · 2021 11% · 2022 26% · 2023 22% — growing more concentrated.
“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
41% of The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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 Center for Investigative Reporting Inc draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 23 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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.
Organizations like The Center for Investigative Reporting 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- The Grab LLC · disregarded
- Center for Investigative Reporting Studios LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Center for Investigative Reporting 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 Center for Investigative Reporting Inc?
- The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc (California) receives grants from 130 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,630,220 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,868,332). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc have?
- IRS filings report 130 organizations giving $37,630,220 in grants to The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc, 84 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,868,332 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc 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 Center for Investigative Reporting →
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 130 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