Grantmakers › Texas

Film Society of Austin Inc

Austin, TX · EIN 74-2433823. Reported 50 grants totalling $1,165,567 to 39 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

39organizations funded
$10,625median reported grant
$1,165,567granted, 2020-2024
11%of grantees funded again the next year
17%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Film Society of Austin Inc, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A310) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 17% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 11% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $10,625. Half of what it reported fell between $9,621 and $24,826; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $121,642. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
14 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
24 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
6 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Sugarloaf Pictures LLC (andrew Richey)Austin, TX$198,856332024
Four Pillars Films LLCAustin, TX$193,775332023
Ttj LLC (margaret Brown)New Orleans, LA$110,400222024
10TH Street Films LLC (heather Courtney)Venice, CA$83,436222023
Newbie Films LLCLos Angeles, CA$80,240112023
Beef and Pie LLCAustin, TX$48,969222024
Pj Raval LLCAustin, TX$46,371442024
Galan IncorporatedAustin, TX$46,250112020
Sunspots Production (bryan Poyser)Austin, TX$36,432112024
Alexis Franco Architecture LLCHouston, TX$28,546222022
The Glades Comm Media (patrick Bresnan)Asheville, NC$23,125112024
Breaking Silence LLC (amy Bench)Austin, TX$19,400112022
Laura Dunn Productions LLCChattanooga, TN$18,500112022
Ashley Starling ThomasDallas, TX$13,000112020
Chelsea HernandezAustin, TX$12,076112020
Light From the East LLCAustin, TX$10,860112020
Pulpa Film LLCHouston, TX$10,750112020
Iliana Sosa LLCEl Paso, TX$10,300112024
All Tea No Shade Productions LLCLos Angeles, CA$10,000112024
Dana Reilly (mostly True Films Llc)San Antonio, TX$10,000112022
Family Band LLCAustin, TX$10,000112023
Iliana SosaAustin, TX$10,000112020
Out of Nowhere LLCMarfa, TX$10,000112024
Paola Nicole Chi AmenAustin, TX$10,000112020
The Daedalum Company USA LLCDallas, TX$10,000112024
The Direct Line LLCAustin, TX$10,000112024
Lisa DonatoAustin, TX$9,898112020
Global Voice Productions (seema)Corpus Christi, TX$9,621112020
SpratxAustin, TX$8,648112023
Tiny Fox LLCAustin, TX$8,500112024
Andrew MorganLos Angeles, CA$7,955112023
Karen KocherAustin, TX$7,486112020
Walker Film LLCAustin, TX$7,000112023
When We Were Live LLCAustin, TX$6,389112020
Anne LewisAustin, TX$6,080112020
Moonglass Pictures LLCDallas, TX$6,000112020
Paloma Hernandez MartinezAllen, TX$6,000112020
Karen SklossAustin, TX$5,704112020
Weekenders Media LLCDallas, TX$5,000112023

7 of 39 (18%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 10 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202017$212,434$10,000
20212$21,676$10,838
202210$427,249$21,771
20239$231,809$8,648
202412$272,399$10,400

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

71% of its giving went to organizations in Texas. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Texas
$832K
California
$182K
Louisiana
$110K
North Carolina
$23K
Tennessee
$18K

Down to the city

Austin, TX
$713K
New Orleans, LA
$110K
Los Angeles, CA
$98K
Venice, CA
$83K
Houston, TX
$39K
Dallas, TX
$34K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

International Documentary Foundation Inc2 shared recipientsSundance Institute2 shared recipientsGreater Austin Performing Arts Center2 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,625 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Texas.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Film Society of Austin Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 12 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 1901 East 51ST Street, Austin, TX, 78723.

EIN 74-2433823 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.