New York · Nonprofit
The Markup News Inc
The Markup News Inc (New York) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,744,259 to it, the largest being CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION ($7,500,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $228k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $5k
What The Markup News Inc does
Mission
The markup is a nonprofit newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good. The markup utilizes an unparalleled roster of engineers and journalists who pursue meaningful, data-driven investigations and develop digital tools.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Editorial & graphics - the markup published investigations, reports, and guides that revealed harms caused by technology and how people use it. Their journalism was actionable and drove real-world impact. They exposed and outlawed digital discrimination with the help of readers. They launched languages of misinformation series, about the information needs and struggles of vietnamese immigrant enclaves, which won an aaja journalism of excellence award for working directly with community members, bridged generational gaps, and taught practical workshops. In parallel with their reporting work, they created digital tools that allowed readers to report with them.
$271,067 spent100% of program spendingProduct & technology - the markup started with a comprehensive redesign of the homepage, accompanied by the creation of new cms features to support the structure of the new homepage and make it easy for editors to change it extensively if needed. They made extensive feature updates to their premiere tool blacklight. They utilized summer interns to help manage the workload and the end result is a plethora of new features including the ability to "spoof" site scans from germany, scan as a desktop browser in addition to a mobile browser, bypass cache of already scanned sites, and a host of performance upgrades.
Audience - in conjunction with the launch of their website redesign, the markup continued to grow the overall brand impact. Their work was republished across other news networks 1,223 times and localized by other newsrooms 8 times. Their tools continue to have impact with their audience as well: over 13 million people have used the blacklight tool. They were also recognized by leaders in the industry. They won 18 industry awards, including several from society for news design, sigma, scripps howard, national press club, and the online journalism association.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $271,067.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $4.1M to $49k (−99%).
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.
100% of The Markup News Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 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
Neil Chase
CEO
Board chair
Hema Sareen Mohan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $520k → $1.7M.
9 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 Markup News Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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 Markup News Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
30% 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 Markup News Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 54% · 2021 43% · 2022 83% · 2023 44% — 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 Markup News Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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 Markup News Inc draws 52% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 Markup News Inc's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 11 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like The Markup News 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
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
14%
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 1 related entity
- CalMatters · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Markup News 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 Markup News Inc?
- The Markup News Inc (New York) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,744,259 to it, the largest being CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION ($7,500,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Markup News Inc have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $18,744,259 in grants to The Markup News Inc, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Markup News Inc?
- CRAIG NEWMARK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $7,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Markup News 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 21 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