California · Nonprofit
WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC
WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $506,835 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($236,444). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $196k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $507k
- Net assets
- $92k
What Watchfire Media Inc does
Mission
Watchfire Media is dedicated to telling good stories through books curricula and films that help us envision the world that could be. We want young people and their adults to walk comfortably with the big questions of spirituality and meaning to be awed by the beauty of the world and to be committed to love kindness courage and justice. We are the publisher of Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints Dear Mama God and the upcoming The Wren Magazine for tweens and teens.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene Watchfire Media partnered with Wild Abundance a local woman-owned carpentry school to fiscally sponsor The Wild Abundance Disaster Relief Fund. This fund helped support the greater Wild Abundance community in the Asheville NC area which was drastically affected by the storm. This included: a pledge of $22,500 to Mutual Aid Barnardsville to help them continue supporting the Barnardsville Community now and into the future. Broke ground on the production of 12x24 small permanent homes to be donated to locals who lost their housing; monies from the fund went toward materials and lead carpentry with lots of volunteer help. Contributed toward purchasing a sawmill for a local resident to turn downed trees into lumber thats being offered for free to local rebuilding efforts. Created an effective system for organizing tree work and repair needs in collaboration with Mutual Aid Barnardsville. This system was especially poignant in the days after the disaster when there was limited access to the internet and volunteers were flooding in looking for places to help take down trees off roads and houses remove mud and debris from houses and land create access with heavy equipment and do repairs on houses. This work is still in place and has been taken over and improved by Mutual Aid Barnardsville. Filmed and produced a video to demonstrate and share the above system with other relief centers responding to Hurricane Helene and with others that…
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene Watchfire Media partnered with Wild Abundance a local woman-owned carpentry school to fiscally sponsor The Wild Abundance Disaster Relief Fund. This fund helped support the greater Wild Abundance community in the Asheville NC area which was drastically affected by the storm. See Schedule 0 for more details.
$22,500 spentof which $30,000 as grants$112,725 earned by the program57% of program spendingWatchfire Media continued to publish our books Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints and Dear Mama God and their companion curricula. We developed a new curriculum for Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints called Part II: We Are Made of Stories & Stardust. It focuses on the importance of the stories we tell individually and collectively and helps youth identify the stories told by 11 additional holy troublemakers and unconventional saints so they can find those that resonate with them and want to share or retell in their own ways.
$13,170 spent$100,065 earned by the program33% of program spendingWatchfire Media began development of a new nature magazine for kids called The Wren Magazine. This is a beautifully handcrafted soul-nourishing publication for tweens teens and their families that invites readers to slow down look closely and rediscover joy gladness and wonder in the everyday world. It helps families cultivate mindful rhythms and home-based practices rooted in attentiveness gratitude and curiosity about the natural world.
$3,698 spent9% 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: $39,368.
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 2020 to 2021, from $28k to $150k (+444%).
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 6% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC’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. 3 of the last 5 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
Daneen Akers
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $43k → $94k.
5 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% 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 WATCHFIRE MEDIA 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
WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
98% 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 WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 83% · 2023 85% — 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.
Where its funders are
98% of WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $10k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside California, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $497k 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
WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like WATCHFIRE 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
28% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 WATCHFIRE 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 WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC?
- WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $506,835 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($236,444). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $506,835 in grants to WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WATCHFIRE MEDIA INC?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $236,444 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WATCHFIRE MEDIA 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 Watchfire Media →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 6 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