· Private foundation
Edith Johnston Memorial Fund
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CIRCUS CITY FESTIVAL INC | $2,250 |
| WENATCHEE YOUTH CIRCUS | $2,000 |
| BINDLESTIFF FAMILY VARIETY ARTS INC | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| CIRCUS HARMONY | $1,750 |
| CIRCUS FANS ASSOC OF AMERICA | $1,750 |
| THE CIRCUS ARTS PLACE | $1,500 |
| CATS CIRC TRAV SHOW RET PROJECT | $1,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 57% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
8 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WYWENATCHEE YOUTH CIRCUS INC4× · 2022–2025 · $8k · revenue +61%
- CCCIRCUS CITY FESTIVAL INC4× · 2022–2025 · $7k · revenue +16%
- BFBindlestiff Family Variety Arts Inc3× · 2023–2025 · $7k · revenue +19%
Funded once
- CICIRCUSENSE INCgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $2k · revenue +27%
- TCTHE CIRCUS ARTS CONSERVATORY INCone grant, 2024 · $2k · revenue -24%
- CHCIRCUS HALL OF FAME INCone grant, 2021 · $2k · revenue -35%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To foster the celebration, preservation and growth of the Circus Arts through creative community performance, and through our Circus Strong Academy and Social Circus programs, provide alternative and artistic physical activity promoting…
The mission of the contemporary circus and immersive arts center is to promote, produce, and present contemporary circus and other immersive arts.
To inspire passion for the circus arts through training, performance, and community engagement. In FY24, we provided 6,000 classes to 25,000+ trainees, produced 24 shows, and provided sustained enrichment activities to dozens of…
Arts education
Circus up uses arts to overcome social barriers and build community with people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
Our mission is to empower, support, and advocate for circus arts education and learners.
To form a consolidated group of students and individuals who have an interest in the history of the circus and allied arts, and to expand and perpetuate the knowledge thereof. to enhance public awareness of circus history as a unique part…
Promotion of arts through education and performance.
Provide high quality circus arts training for students and artists while facilitating greater access and programming to everyone.
To honor those who have made an important contribution to the american circus and preserve the history and traditional values of the circus
How this is measured
11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 15 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds CIRCUS HARMONY ↗
- Who funds WENATCHEE YOUTH CIRCUS INC ↗
- Who funds CIRCUS CITY FESTIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts Inc ↗
- Who funds CIRCUS FANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds CIRCADIUM ↗
- Who funds CIRCUSENSE INC ↗
- Who funds THE CIRCUS ARTS CONSERVATORY INC ↗
- Who funds CIRCUS HALL OF FAME INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON CIRCUS SPACE INC ↗
- Who funds FRENCH LICK WEST BADEN CULTURAL CTR ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.
Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Edith Johnston Memorial Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Edith Johnston Memorial Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Edith Johnston Memorial Fund?
Find your warmest path to Edith Johnston Memorial Fund through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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