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SJ
Sheila Johnson
VirginiaMedia
C
31.4
PBS
~$1.2B
Profile Summary
Sheila Johnson, born in 1949, is a U.S. billionaire in the media industry and is based in Virginia. Her estimated net worth is ~$1.2B RTB. The data provided does not include details on how she built her wealth, so no business history is stated beyond her industry classification Wikidata, RTB.
Philanthropy
Johnson is associated with three foundations that filed IRS Form 990s for tax year 2023. Form 990 is the annual public tax return for nonprofits, and these filings show a combined $320,961 in grants paid and $8,122,238 in total foundation assets ProPublica 990. The largest foundation listed had $4,406,767 in assets and paid $259,165 in grants, while another had $2,908,784 in assets and paid only $275 in grants ProPublica 990.
Political Activity
The FEC data shows 100 contributions totaling $184.06 in the listed date range FEC. The top recipients were ACTBLUE at $106, WINRED at $78.05, and E-PAC at $0.01, and the party breakdown is listed as Unknown for the full amount FEC.
In the News
Recent news results in the provided dataset do not appear to be about Sheila Johnson specifically NewsAPI. The headlines shown cover unrelated topics such as UVA student mental health, a resort reopening, and local government and media stories NewsAPI.
U.S. Presence
residenceThe Plains, Virginia
Philanthropy
$8.1MFoundation Assets
$321KGrants Paid
3Foundations
Johnson FoundationSalisbury, NC
Assets: $2.9MRevenue: $440KGrants: $275Tax Year: 2023
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerJohnson FoundationNew York, NY
Assets: $4.4MRevenue: $116KGrants: $259KTax Year: 2023
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerJohnson FoundationChariton, IA
Assets: $807KRevenue: $49KGrants: $62KTax Year: 2023
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerPolitical Contributions
$184.06Total Contributed
100Contributions
2025–2025Date Range
By Party
Top Recipients
ACTBLUE$106
WINRED$78.05
E-PAC$0.01
Recent News
7Total Articles
News Directory 3Top Source
NeutralAvg. Sentiment
Score Breakdown
C
31.4
Public Benefit Score
The PBS is a weighted average of 2 components. The formula is open and versioned — the weight percentages below show how much each component contributes to the final score.
Philanthropy65% weight
Evidenced charitable giving — built on what they actually give each year, not parked assets. Dominated by generosity (annual giving relative to net worth — the share of your fortune you give), plus the absolute scale of that giving, plus a small nudge for signing the Giving Pledge (a commitment, not a realized action).
Data: ProPublica 990 charitable disbursements, net worth, The Giving Pledge registry
Transparency35% weight
How much sourced, public accountability data exists — net worth, political contributions, SEC filings, foundation 990s, news coverage, and a verified profile. More public disclosure scores higher.
Data: FEC, SEC EDGAR, ProPublica 990s, GDELT / NewsAPI, Wikidata
Formula (v2): PBS = 65% x Philanthropy + 35% x Transparency
Scored on 6/23/2026 on a 0–100 scale. The score uses only the signals we have populated data for. Goal Impact, Controversy, and Community Approval are deferred until that data exists — Phase 1 goal adoption, controversy detection, and community votes respectively.
All data is sourced from public records. Each section links to its original source.