Grants for media organizations

Name: Top 25 grants made to media production and publishing organizations
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

1,626 media production and publishing organizations received at least $439.2 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 4,088 grants made from 2,365 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 2,365 foundations, 76% made just a single grant to media orgs, and 4% made grants to four or more media orgs. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$439,154,692

Total grant dollars given to media organizations

4,088

Number of grants made annually to media organizations

2,365

Number of grantmakers funding media organizations

$1,000

Median grant size to media organizations

Foundations that support media production and publishing organizations

Out of all grants made to media organizations, 79% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 92% of the dollar-value of grants to media orgs. Foundations funding media orgs also made grants to multiservice human service organizations, educational service providers, colleges, animal shelters, and international humanitarian organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,883
Medium	275
Large	207

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	47
Private	2,121
Corporate	96
Other	101

Grants made

Grants made to media orgs	Number of grantmakers
1	1,818
2-3	446
4-10	77
11+	24

Top 10 foundations supporting media production and publishing organizations

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to media orgs	Number of grants made to media orgs	Median grant size
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.2%	163	$1,000
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	77	$365
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.1%	51	$1,000
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	47	$300
Chubb Charitable Foundation	PA	National	0.1%	47	$100
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)	NJ	National	0.0%	46	$500
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.1%	42	$625
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.1%	42	$105
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.1%	41	$250
Gannett Foundation	VA	National	0.2%	29	$100

See all grantmaking to media organizations

Media production and publishing organizations grantees

Media organizations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 98% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 60% of all media orgs.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	4,050
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	38

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$1,000
$500k-$1M	$1,600
$1M-$5M	$1,027
>$5M	$800

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	788
California	675
Washington	304
Massachusetts	183
Other	2,138

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	729
San Francisco	295
Seattle	281
Los Angeles	251
Other	2,291

Top 25 grants made to media organizations

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Iowa State Univeristy of Science and Technology	$100,386,531	See Part Iv	Iowa State University Foundation
Iowa State Univeristy of Science and Technology	$39,394,877	Annual Distribution	Big Twelve Conference
Center for Media and Public Affairs	$32,386,228	Program Support	George Mason University Foundation
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)	$29,243,900	TVPRG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Sesame Workshop (SW)	$25,107,013	To Enhance Caregiver-Child Engagement and Improve Children's Learning and Socio-Emotional Outcomes By Implementing A Large-Scale Early Childhood Intervention in the Syrian Response Region.	John D & Catherine T Macarthur Foundation
First Look Media	$25,045,000	Arts & Culture	Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
Independent Television Services	$15,574,046	TVPRG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)	$12,900,590	RTL	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Wnet	$12,237,557	TVCSG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA)	$11,088,222	Support for Films, Outreach, Education	The Better Angels Society
WGBH Educational Foundation	$7,859,857	TVCSG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
WGBH Educational Foundation	$6,765,954	TVPRG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Kqed (KQED)	$6,750,250	General Support	Gerson Bakar Foundation
Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA)	$6,415,184	TVCSG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA)	$6,160,903	TVPRG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Independent Television Services	$6,025,000	Arts & Culture	Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
PRX	$6,000,000	Accrual	WGBH Educational Foundation
Public Radio International	$6,000,000	Accrual	WGBH Educational Foundation
PRX	$6,000,000	Accrual	WGBH Educational Foundation
Kcetlink PBS Socal Or Link TV	$5,533,638	TVCSG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Harper's Magazine Foundation	$4,965,000	To Support the Continuing Operations of Harper's Magazine	Roderick MacArthur Foundation
Kqed (KQED)	$4,620,257	TVCSG	Corporation for Public Broadcasting
MIT Technology Review	$4,512,964	Cash	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
MIT Technology Review	$4,512,964	Contribution	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Radio Kingston Corporation	$4,500,000	General Operating Support	Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley

See all grants to media organizations

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Media organizations" category for this page is determined by the "A30: Media, Communications Organizations" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.