California · Nonprofit
The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice
The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice (California) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,505,683 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($6,732,500). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.8M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $4.7M
What The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice does
Mission
Our mission is to build a powerful movement for a more just and participatory media and digital world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In FY25, MediaJustice built community power to challenge how corporations and governments use media and technology. To assess community needs, MJ conducted a seven-city listening tour engaging 47 grassroots organizations to assess the post-election landscape and identify emergent needs. As a result, MJ launched 11 political education workshops in English and Spanish making meaning of the political moment and how to respond. Over 155,000 people viewed the series, and our organizing and communications tools were downloaded over 3,000 times. MJ provided technical assistance, narrative strategy, and campaign support to 20 communities, and pursued interventions to protect consumer privacy, defend communications rights and access, and keep public dollars from funding surveillance tech.
$3,235,909 spent$825 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,235,909.
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 2020 to 2021, from $3.1M to $5.7M (+81%).
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 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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.
Board chair
Joseph Torres
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $851k → $3.1M.
16 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Media Justice DBA MediaJustice’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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 Media Justice DBA MediaJustice has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 56% · 2019 56% · 2020 46% · 2021 16% · 2022 25% · 2023 26% — 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
33% of The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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 Media Justice DBA MediaJustice draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice has grown faster than half of the 431 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 431 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
47%
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 The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice: 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 Media Justice DBA MediaJustice?
- The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice (California) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,505,683 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($6,732,500). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $20,505,683 in grants to The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,732,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Center for Media Justice DBA MediaJustice 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.
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 56 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