The Discover Indie Film Foundation
Legal name: Discover Indie Film Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 831823937
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2019–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Sherman Oaks, CA, USA
- Phone
- 3108017896
- Rating
- 37
- Verdict
- REVIEW
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Film, Video
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $92,629
- Expenses
- $105,554
- Assets
- $14,118
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jeffrey Howard (President)
People named in this filing
- Jeffrey Howard (President)
- David A Scharf (Secretary)
- Elizabeth J Dunn (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Discover Indie Film Foundation (DIFF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to independent cinema, managing two film festivals that are on FilmFreeway’s Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festivals list. The foundation values quality above all and embraces filmmakers from diverse backgrounds, honoring their work equally without separate categories based on race, sexual orientation, or gender identification.
What it reported doing in 2025
Presented two film festivals during the calendar, as well as bi-monthly mixers to foster the creative community.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 71% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- No current program activity. The filing reports no program spending for the current year.
The verdict
REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -14%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 13.7%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -50% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 18% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd 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: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.