Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Capital Fringe Inc
Capital Fringe Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,471,792 to it, the largest being REVADA FOUNDATION ($502,561). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $95k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $749k
What Capital Fringe Inc does
Mission
Capital Fringe was founded in 2005 with a mission to celebrate cultural democracy and access to art and artistic expression for all. By embracing diversity and a spirit of independence, we create earning opportunities for individual artists.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, Capital Fringe made the difficult decision to cease production of the annual Capital/DC Fringe Festival after two decades. This decision followed years of effort to build and sustain stable infrastructure for large-scale open-access live performance amid the steady loss of affordable and proximate venues across Washington, DC. Fringe festivals require a dense cluster of spaces capable of supporting more than one hundred productions annually; while Capital Fringe achieved this for a time in Downtown DC at Fort Fringe and later across multiple neighborhoods including H Street NE/Trinidad, Southwest DC, Georgetown, and Downtown DC, the long-term erosion of venue availability and rising costs made continuation unsustainable. Over twenty years, Capital Fringe activated 158 venues, nearly two thirds of which no longer exist. While the festival has concluded, Capital Fringe continues its mission through new program models, including the launch of the Ed Tyler Fringe Touring Fund and through fiscal sponsorship of independent artists and producers across the DMV. These programs extend Capital Fringes commitment to open access, experimentation, and artist support beyond a single…
$187,294 spent$8,500 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $187,294.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $4.6M to $1.1M (−76%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 11% · 2018 10% · 2019 31% · 2020 13% · 2022 29% · 2024 32% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
24% of Capital Fringe Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $74k → $154k.
4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Capital Fringe Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Capital Fringe Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Capital Fringe Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 92% · 2019 68% · 2020 53% · 2021 26% · 2022 46% · 2023 65% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
60% of Capital Fringe Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
Capital Fringe Inc draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $545k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Capital Fringe Inc's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 7 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Government funding Capital Fringe Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Capital Fringe Inc
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Capital Fringe Inc: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Capital Fringe Inc?
- Capital Fringe Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,471,792 to it, the largest being REVADA FOUNDATION ($502,561). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Capital Fringe Inc have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,471,792 in grants to Capital Fringe Inc, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Capital Fringe Inc?
- REVADA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $502,561 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Capital Fringe Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Capital Fringe →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 14 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing