US media watchdog the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) is to close on December 31 due to a lack of funding.

NIMF was founded in 1996 “to educate and inform the public, and to encourage practices and policies that promote positive change in the production and use of mass media”.

The organisation is perhaps best know for its annual Video Game Report Card, which outlined “the issues and opportunities” games presented to American families each year. NIMF credits the report card as having been a “very effective tool to bring about reforms in marketing practices, ratings accuracy, ratings education, and ratings enforcement at the retail level”.

Released last November, NIMF’s 13th annual Video Game Report Card (pdf) found that the videogame market had become more parent-friendly compared to the prior year.

According to WCCO (via GamePolitics), NIMF was funded by Fairview Health Services, which committed $750,000 to the organisation annually. Dan Anderson, the president of Fairview's north region, said that Fairview was unable to continue funding NIMF and had been in talks with the institute for a couple of years about trying to source alternative funding.

NIMF president and founder Dr. David Walsh said in a statement: “The current challenging economic environment accelerated those discussions making this the right time to begin transitioning the programs to other organisations who share our mission and values. I look forward to transitioning the Institute’s programs to worthy organisations that I am confident will continue to educate parents and caregivers on our rapidly changing digital culture.”