Oklahoma · Nonprofit
CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION
CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION (Oklahoma) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $988,869 to it, the largest being TULSA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($240,608). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $989k
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Circle Cinema Foundation does
Mission
To use film to foster understanding and appreciation of the diversity of the human experience and create community among the viewers in the restored historic circle cinema. To educate, enlighten, entertain and enhance community consciousness through film. Activities include the presentation of independent, documentary, foreign and classic films; collaboration with other community nonprofit organizations on films that tie to social, health, environmental, civic, historic and religious issues; partnerships with schools and school groups to present educational films to students; support of local filmmaking through the screening of films made in oklahoma, about oklahoma or with oklahoman actors or filmmakers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Circle Cinema Foundation works to educate, enlighten, entertain audiences and enhance community consciousness through film. Activities include the presentation of independent, documentary, foreign and classic films; collaboration with other nonprofit organizations to present films that tie to social, health, environmental, civic, historical and religious issues; partnerships with schools to present educational films for students; and support of local filmmaking through the screening of films made in oklahoma, films made about oklahoma and films made by oklahoma filmmakers and actors. The organization works to preserve and maintain its historic and iconic building origially built in 1928, which is now on the national register of historic places and is an important part of tulsa cinematic history as its last remaining historic movie theatre.
$1,220,167 spent$733,442 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,220,167.
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 2019 to 2020, from $3.4M to $3.0M (−12%).
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: 2021 10% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
47% of CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Brent Ortolani
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $4k → $173k.
3 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION’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
CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
49% 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 CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 80% · 2019 75% · 2020 37% · 2021 54% · 2022 25% · 2023 29% — 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
70% of CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
96% of CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Oklahoma funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $247k 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
CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 12 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION
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 Oklahoma
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION: 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 CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION?
- CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION (Oklahoma) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $988,869 to it, the largest being TULSA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($240,608). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $988,869 in grants to CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION?
- TULSA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $240,608 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CIRCLE CINEMA FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oklahoma. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 27 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