Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN
THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,283,516 to it, the largest being THE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM SPECIAL ASSET FUND OF TPF ($218,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $625k
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $-205489
What The Philadelphia Citizen does
Mission
The Philadelphia Citizen, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization, has a dual mission: to provide deeply reported journalism that emphasizes solutions that can move our region forward, and to actively reignite citizenship in and around philadelphia.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Philadelphia Citizen's program service accomplishments for its three largest program services include signature thought leader convenings, an ongoing news website, and civic engagement opportunities. 1. Thought leader convenings included the ideas we should steal festival, real estate development for... Good event series, and author events. These events included panel speakers, inviting the philadelphia public to listen and engage with civic ideas and solutions. Revenue was generated through sponsorship and ticket sales. Fundraising was solicited through calls for donation at events. 2. The citizen's editorial output includes website articles five to ten times per week covering philadelphia civic, social, political, and cultural news as well as a weekly newsletter. Some editorial series generate revenue through sponsorship. 3. Civic engagement opportunities included the ultimate job interview series which allowed philadelphians to create a mayoral job description together, then use that description to interview mayoral candidates. This program also included voter information resources such as guides and candidate profiles to inform the public on their choices for the…
$658,137 spent$125,594 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $658,137.
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 2017 to 2018, from $47k to $608k (+1180%).
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: 2020 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
Robert Keith
Interim chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $45k → $304k.
7 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% 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
72% 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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 59% · 2019 50% · 2020 27% · 2021 25% · 2022 23% · 2023 34% — 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
35% of THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN'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
89% of THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $358k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 13 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN: 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 PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN?
- THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,283,516 to it, the largest being THE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM SPECIAL ASSET FUND OF TPF ($218,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $1,283,516 in grants to THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN?
- THE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM SPECIAL ASSET FUND OF TPF is the largest funder on record, with $218,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Philadelphia Citizen →
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 34 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