California · Nonprofit
CIRCUS CENTER
CIRCUS CENTER (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $972,763 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($350,207). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $973k
- Net assets
- $-597553
What Circus Center does
Mission
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 underserved youth.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
TRAINING: Circus Center offers classes for every level of ability in flying trapeze, acrobatics, aerial arts, contortion, juggling, and many other disciplines. We have training for all ages, from our recreational and pre-professional youth programs serving students as young as 6 years old, to our recreational adult classes and private lessons. In addition, we offer artist residencies; summer camp; corporate, youth, and group events; workshops; specialty intensives; and much more. Our world-renowned team of instructors have performed with the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Moscow Circus, Cirque du Soleil, Pickle Family Circus, Circus Bella, Circus Smirkus, Teatro ZinZanni, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and the Big Apple Circus.
$1,287,453 spent$1,233,813 earned by the program81% of program spendingPERFORMANCE: Circus Center produced a full season of in-person shows featuring over a hundred Circus Center professional and student circus artists in seven different performances. These shows employ dozens of circus, music, and variety artists annually. Collectively our performances serve thousands of audience members every year, all at accessible ticket prices.
$127,156 spent$136,777 earned by the program8% of program spendingCOMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Circus Center partners with schools and community organizations to offer circus arts activities to underserved young people. This year, we continued and grew our after-school program at a center for economically disadvantaged children. We also continued our regular series of community open houses to provide low-barrier introductions to the world of circus. And for those young people who get bit by the circus bug, we offer generous need-based financial assistance and other support for their participation in all of our on-site youth programming.
$174,839 spent$13,678 earned by the program11% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,589,448.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $377k to $1.1M (+194%).
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: 2018 1% · 2021 20% · 2022 11% · 2023 18% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of CIRCUS CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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 held at 6 funders, grant income fell $207k → $123k.
6 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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 CIRCUS CENTER’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
CIRCUS CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 CIRCUS CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 91% · 2019 78% · 2020 76% · 2021 38% · 2022 35% · 2023 41% — 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
29% of CIRCUS CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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 CIRCUS CENTER's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $473k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
CIRCUS CENTER's revenue grew 25% between 2018 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding CIRCUS CENTER 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 CIRCUS CENTER
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 CIRCUS CENTER: 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 CIRCUS CENTER?
- CIRCUS CENTER (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $972,763 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($350,207). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CIRCUS CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $972,763 in grants to CIRCUS CENTER, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CIRCUS CENTER?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $350,207 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CIRCUS CENTER 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 Circus Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 19 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