California · Nonprofit
Church of Clown
Church of Clown (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,750 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($20,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $202k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $38k
- Net assets
- $11k
What Church of Clown does
Mission
Church of Clown's mission is to embolden humanity through community, teach resilience through humor, foster humility through service, and nurture inspiration through joy.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Classes & Workshops: Church of Clown offers high-quality pedagogical training in the art of clown and physical performance. Core offerings include Clown 1 (basic elements of clown), Clown 2 (physical comedy), and Clown 3 (ensemble work), alongside various specialized workshops. In 2025, the organization delivered a total of 303 hours of instruction, supporting performers at all levels of development.
$125,759 spent$85,434 earned by the program75% of program spendingTheatre Productions & Nighttime Entertainment: Church of Clown is dedicated to keeping live theatre alive in San Francisco and supporting artists in their transition from student to professional performer. In 2025, the organization produced 31 original plays with multiple-day showings, resulting in 74 total performances featuring both local and touring artists. The organization also produced two festivals The Flop Festival and Tenfold Physique in addition to variety shows providing performers the opportunity to present works in progress. Church of Clown also maintains an in-house theatre company as a core component of its artistic programming.
$25,152 spent$40,361 earned by the program15% of program spendingCommunity Events: Church of Clown engages the broader San Francisco community through events that incorporate and uplift local businesses. In 2025, the organization hosted a total of 9 community events.
$16,769 spent10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $167,680.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 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 2024 to 2025, from $8k to $11k (+33%).
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: 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
38% of Church of Clown’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 2 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
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
3 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 Church of Clown’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
Church of Clown leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 Church of Clown.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of Church of Clown's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Church of Clown has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Church of Clown
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 Church of Clown: 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 Church of Clown?
- Church of Clown (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $37,750 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($20,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Church of Clown have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $37,750 in grants to Church of Clown, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Church of Clown?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Church of Clown find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Church of Clown →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 3 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