National Film Preservation Foundation
San Francisco, CA · EIN 52-2055624. Reported 132 grants totalling $4,126,106 to 68 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For National Film Preservation Foundation, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A31) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 68 distinct organizations, with 20% 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.
- How much its list changes. 54% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $18,880. Half of what it reported fell between $12,010 and $23,820; the smallest was $5,230 and the largest $821,916. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| See Schedule I | See Schedule I, NY | $821,916 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| George Eastman Museum | Rochester, NY | $504,340 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Smithsonian Institute | Washington, DC | $271,560 | 12 | 4 | 2025 |
| Regents Univ of California | Los Angeles, CA | $227,180 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Friends of the Knox County Public Library | Knoxville, TN | $166,800 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Chicago Film Society | Chicago, IL | $163,740 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Pan Am Historical Foundation Inc | Walnut Creek, CA | $128,100 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Regents of the University of California at Berkeley | Riverside, CA | $92,470 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Chicago Film Archives Nfp | Chicago, IL | $87,740 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Silent Film Festival | San Francisco, CA | $80,090 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | $75,800 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Alaska Moving Images Preservation Association | Anchorage, AK | $72,500 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Camera News Inc D B a Third World Newsreel | New York, NY | $68,170 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| National Gallery of Art | Landover, MD | $63,660 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Appalshop Inc | Whitesburg, KY | $62,120 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Association of Moving Image Archivists | Los Angeles, CA | $59,600 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| New York University | New York, NY | $55,940 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Paso Del Norte Community Foundation | El Paso, TX | $54,630 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Univ of South Carolina | Columbia, SC | $51,400 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of California Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara, CA | $50,170 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation Inc | Wilmington, DE | $48,860 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Anthology Film Archives | New York, NY | $42,570 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Pittsburgh Sound and Image | Pittsburgh, PA | $42,410 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations | New York, NY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc | New York, NY | $38,520 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago | Chicago, IL | $37,920 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Atlanta Historical Society Inc | Atlanta, GA | $36,800 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Cranbrook Educational Community | Bloomfield Hills, MI | $36,380 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Herbert Hoover Presidential L | West Branch, IA | $36,080 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Rtpi of Natural History | Jamestown, NY | $32,450 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Washington University | St Louis, MO | $29,060 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Walker Art Center Inc | Minneapolis, MN | $26,160 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| American Museum of Natural History | New York, NY | $25,600 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Texas Archive of the Moving Image | Austin, TX | $23,820 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Documentary Educational Resources Inc | Watertown, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Frameline Inc | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Moore College of Art and Design | Philadelphia, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Polish Highlanders Alliance F | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Visual Communications Media | Los Angeles, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Phoenix Arts Alliance Inc | Butte, MT | $19,660 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| National Geographic Society | Washington, DC | $19,450 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Huna Heritage Foundation Inc | Juneau, AK | $19,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Ted Stevens Foundation | Anchorage, AK | $18,930 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hartford Public Library | Hartford, CT | $18,830 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Canyon Cinema Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $18,370 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Onondaga Historical Association | Syracuse, NY | $17,870 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bucks Rock Camp Inc | New Milford, CT | $17,720 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Film Preserve | San Francisco, CA | $15,540 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, NC | $13,950 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Deserted Films | Palm Springs, CA | $13,900 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Bruce Museum Inc | Greenwich, CT | $13,350 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Delaware County Historical Association | Delhi, NY | $12,710 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Foundation of the State University of New York at Binghamton Inc | Binghamton, NY | $12,340 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Alaska | Fairbanks, AK | $11,880 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Electronic Arts Intermix Inc | New York, NY | $11,380 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Wildlife Conservation Society | Bronx, NY | $10,250 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends of American Song Archives Inc | Tulsa, OK | $10,140 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Madera County Library | Madera, CA | $9,710 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| North Carolina State Universi | Raleigh, NC | $9,070 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Delaware Valley University | Doylestown, PA | $8,710 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Association for Recorded Sound Collections Inc | Annapolis, MD | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation | Alameda, CA | $7,720 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Southern Oregon Historical Society | Medford, OR | $6,990 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Ohio State University | Columbus, OH | $6,920 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bob Mizer Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $6,610 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rhode Island School of Design | Providence, RI | $6,450 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
27 of 68 (40%) 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.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 53 of 68 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | $821,916 | $821,916 |
| 2022 | 33 | $648,450 | $14,820 |
| 2023 | 33 | $1,053,230 | $19,290 |
| 2024 | 33 | $685,210 | $18,270 |
| 2025 | 32 | $917,300 | $19,695 |
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
41% of its giving went to organizations in New York. 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.
Down to the city
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $18,880 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from National Film Preservation Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). 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 24 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 8 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: 145 9TH Street 260, San Francisco, CA, 94103.
EIN 52-2055624 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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