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Arkansas · Nonprofit

Circle of Life

Circle of Life (Arkansas) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,206,674 to it, the largest being Alice L Walton Foundation ($3,000,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$34M
Funders on record
26
Grants received
$4.2M
Net assets
$37M
13/26 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 9%
01What it does

What Circle of Life does

Mission

The Organization provides end of life medical care to individuals located in Northwest Arkansas.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Hospice care

    $18,511,215 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $18,511,215.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($14M) Expenses 100 ($14M) Net assets 100 ($17M)2018 Revenue 100 ($14M) Expenses 101 ($14M) Net assets 98 ($17M)2019 Revenue 115 ($16M) Expenses 108 ($15M) Net assets 102 ($17M)2020 Revenue 141 ($19M) Expenses 124 ($17M) Net assets 114 ($19M)2021 Revenue 147 ($20M) Expenses 133 ($19M) Net assets 123 ($21M)2022 Revenue 170 ($23M) Expenses 149 ($21M) Net assets 137 ($23M)2023 Revenue 240 ($33M) Expenses 176 ($25M) Net assets 186 ($32M)2024 Revenue 247 ($34M) Expenses 205 ($29M) Net assets 216 ($37M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (247)Expenses (205)Net assets (216)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $26M to $35M (+34%).

$21M
$21M
$22M
$22M
$24M
$26M
$35M
$44M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

12% of Circle of Life’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (80% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 863 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$291k
’17
−$349k
’18
$662k
’19
$2.0M
’20
$1.6M
’21
$2.4M
’22
$8.4M
’23
$5.2M
’24
4.8
months of
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

Grubbs Catherine S

CEO

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed2431212429232422
Joined·+12+9+5+14+3+5+3
No longer listed·51929945
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $45k → $3.1M.

12 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $583k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Circle of Life Hospice Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Circle of Life raised.

From the IRS filings of Circle of Life’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 of Life leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

71%
largest funder
84%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 71% · 2019 64% · 2020 49% · 2021 42% · 2022 18% · 2023 96% — growing more concentrated.

“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

40% of Circle of Life's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

99% of Circle of Life's grant income comes from Arkansas funders.

MN
CT
RI
CA
CO
AR
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Arkansas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $436k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Circle of Life is better cushioned than half of the 828 philanthropy nonprofits its size.

Operating margin15% · below the median
Months of reserve4.8mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 828 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024

Organizations like Circle of Life

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 Arkansas

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 24%Fundraising 2%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

95%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

AR

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • Circle of Life Palliative Care LLC · disregarded
  • Circle of Life Personal Care LLC · disregarded
  • Circle of Life Hospice Foundation · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Circle of Life: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 of Life?
Circle of Life (Arkansas) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,206,674 to it, the largest being Alice L Walton Foundation ($3,000,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Circle of Life have?
IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $4,206,674 in grants to Circle of Life, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Circle of Life?
Alice L Walton Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Circle of Life find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arkansas. 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 Circle of Life →

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 26 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