Catapult Film Fund
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 472942570
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5108414023
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,529,142
- Expenses
- $1,305,852
- Assets
- $638,059
- Liabilities
- $301,096
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Megan Gelstein (Dir/Prog Officer): $132,635 total reported compensation
- Theresa Navarro (Dir/COO): $119,466 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Catapult Film Fund is dedicated to supporting nonfiction filmmakers with critical early-stage funding and mentorship to launch distinctive, story-driven, and cinematic films.
What it reported doing in 2025
Catapult's Development Grant program provides up to $25,000 to documentary filmmakers who have a strong story to tell, have secured access, and are ready to create a fundraising piece to help unlock critical production funding. We enable filmmakers to develop their projects to the next level, at the early stage when funding is hard to find. We support powerful and moving storytelling by filmmakers with a strong voice across a broad spectrum of subject matter. In addition to the Development Grant, recipients have access to a mentorship program with the Catapult team, in areas including story development, production process, fundraising and distribution strategy. Catapult also provides opportunities for grantees to apply for additional financial support in the form of Momentum Grants and Consulting Grant, when they reach a point in their filmmaking process when an infusion of funds can propel them to their next step. Examples include hiring an editor, getting transcripts translated, archival research, or music composition.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 47% for direct work, and 53% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 57
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.6%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $6,196.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 98.6%; rating input score 99; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14.6%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.49; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.47; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 19.3%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20.1% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 65.6% of revenue deployed · 76.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1000K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $133K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 19 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 17 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.