GrantmakersTexas

Film Society of Austin Inc

Austin, TX · EIN 74-2433823. Reported 38 grants totalling $893,168 to 31 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

31organizations funded
$10,805median reported grant
$893,168granted, 2020-2023
18%of grantees funded again the next year
22%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. 31 distinct organizations, with 22% 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. 18% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $10,805. Half of what it reported fell between $7,955 and $24,143; 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
13 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
16 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 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
Four Pillars Films LLCAustin, TX$193,775332023
Sugarloaf Pictures LLC (andrew Richey)Austin, TX$128,140222023
10TH Street Films LLC (heather Courtney)Venice, CA$83,436222023
Newbie Films LLCLos Angeles, CA$80,240112023
Ttj LLC (margaret Brown)New Orleans, LA$62,400112022
Galan IncorporatedAustin, TX$46,250112020
Pj Raval LLCAustin, TX$35,871332022
Alexis Franco Architecture LLCHouston, TX$28,546222022
Beef and Pie LLCAustin, TX$24,143112022
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
Dana Reilly (mostly True Films Llc)San Antonio, TX$10,000112022
Family Band LLCAustin, TX$10,000112023
Iliana SosaAustin, TX$10,000112020
Paola Nicole Chi AmenAustin, TX$10,000112020
Lisa DonatoAustin, TX$9,898112020
Global Voice Productions (seema)Corpus Christi, TX$9,621112020
SpratxAustin, TX$8,648112023
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

5 of 31 (16%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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 8 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

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

72% 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
$641K
California
$172K
Louisiana
$62K
Tennessee
$18K

Down to the city

Austin, TX
$552K
Los Angeles, CA
$88K
Venice, CA
$83K
New Orleans, LA
$62K
Houston, TX
$39K
Dallas, TX
$24K

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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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

International Documentary Foundation Inc2 shared recipientsSundance Institute2 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 $10,805 -- 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 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 7 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, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.