Form 990 for tax year 2025

Totals

Total revenue

$4,606,476

Total expenses

$5,531,884

Contributions and grants received

$3,296,157

Grants paid

$1,313,655

Program service revenue

$1,105,920

Investment income

$204,399

Other revenue

$0

Total assets, end of year

$8,084,528

Total liabilities, end of year

$1,210,848

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$6,873,680

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$4,276,595

Management and general expenses

$874,617

Fundraising expenses

$380,672

Program service expenses (Part III)

$4,276,595

Program services were 77.3% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2025

• Membership Services & LION Awards: We completed the successful Sustainability 360 pilot and launched our first full S360 cohort, providing members with hands-on back-office support and strategic coaching. In parallel, we piloted a new Back Office support program focused on helping early-stage members build strong HR and finance foundations for long-term sustainability. We partnered with Press Forward on a new program that offers Audits and strategic business coaching to the 205 news outlets awarded Closing Local Coverage Gaps grants in 2024. This marks the first time in LION history that a program serves more non members than members. We also launched the members-only LION Growth Grant program, reviewing over 220 applications from members in 48 states, and distributing $750K of a planned total $1.5M to 15 publishers for operational funds to strengthen their business operations. Finally, we piloted and expanded direct consulting services in our Back Office and Sustainability 360 programs, which both included consulting hours with HR and/or Finance experts to provide publishers with hands-on support for strengthening their operations.

  Expenses $2,481,434 · Grants $1,310,000 · Revenue $468,611

• Membership Education: More than 150 LIONs participated in peer-led learning groups, culminating in an in-person session at the 2025 Summit. Across the network, the LION community continued to provide a trusted space for publishers to exchange ideas, challenges, and resources during a difficult year for many newsrooms. Year round, LION members and other industry colleagues make up the community of 1600 members in the News Entrepreneur Community Slack. Participants have focused discussion spaces for peer learning and specific LION programs, as well as place-based and other channels that any member of the Slack can contribute to.

  Expenses $790,775 · Grants $3,655 · Revenue $397,800

• Data & Evaluation: We launched the self-serve Audit, transforming a cohort-based, highly customized program into a scalable product available to any LION member at any time. In its first six months, members completed 402 Audits, nearly matching the 450 completed over the programs previous three-year history.

  Expenses $650,564 · Revenue $239,509

• Policy & Advocacy: LION strengthened its member advocacy efforts, shifting from reactive responses to proactively mobilizing members to engage in policy conversations affecting independent news organizations.

  Expenses $353,822

As filed on the 2025 return.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

• Tiny News Collective

  $500,000

• Amestoy Communications LLC

  $50,000

• Arizona Local Post

  $50,000

• Borderless Magazine NFP

  $50,000

• Community Capital Fund

  $50,000

• Independent Arts & Media

  $50,000

• India Currents Foundation

  $50,000

• LOOKOUT Publications

  $50,000

• MatSu Sentinel

  $50,000

• Robert Davis Shaver Jr

  $50,000

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2025

Filed

8 July 2026

IRS schema version

2025v4.2

Source object

202631899349301658

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