California · Nonprofit
DOME FEST WEST
DOME FEST WEST (California) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $15,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($15,000). 0 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
- $70k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $15k
- Net assets
- $-3425
What Dome Fest West does
Mission
Dome Fest West is dedicated to advancing education in fulldome and immersive media. Through an annual film festival, year-round Fulldome Forums webinars, the Best of Earth fulldome awards coalition, and community programming, the organization expands public access to immersive cinema, surfaces excellence in the field, and builds a sustained creator community for this emerging art form. All activities are directly aligned with and are executed in support of this educational purpose, in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
DFW 2025 Festival Edition at Fiske Planetarium, University of Colorado Boulder. Objective: To advance education and appreciation of fulldome and immersive media by producing the annual Dome Fest West film festival. Accomplishments: Produced the 4th annual Dome Fest West May 1 through 4, 2025 at Fiske Planetarium, the second consecutive festival at the venue and the most expansive edition in DFW history. The festival expanded across multiple CU Boulder venues including the Fiske Dome Theater, Kittredge KCEN Hall and Stage, and three Village Center rooms. Launched the inaugural Fulldome Forward Expo as a trade component including an exhibits hall and presentations stage for the immersive media industry. Presented 44 films and immersive works from 14 countries across 11 screening sessions in Fiske, plus 18 or more panel and roundtable sessions on topics ranging from fulldome storytelling to spatial audio standards, LED technology, financial models for immersive creators, and licensing and distribution. Concluded with two awards ceremonies including the inaugural Best of Earth international fulldome awards (DFW served as founding partner) presented alongside the established DFW awards…
$51,562 spentof which $1,243 as grants$54,269 earned by the program90% of program spendingFulldome Forums Online Educational Series. Objective: To advance year-round public education on fulldome and immersive media by hosting free, publicly accessible online webinars featuring industry experts. Accomplishments: Hosted Fulldome Forums webinar installments throughout calendar year 2025 covering topics including advanced acoustic strategies for immersive venues (March 2025), innovative sound strategies for immersive creators (April 2025), key principles for innovative dome venue design (June 2025), interactive fulldome explorations (July 2025), exploring innovative revenue streams for planetariums (August 2025), securing resources for fulldome vision (September 2025), monetizing live theatrical productions in domes (November 2025), and the revival of planetarium lasers (December 2025). Eight Forums were held in calendar year 2025. Forums are free with registration, archived publicly on YouTube indefinitely, and accessible with captions. Across the rolling 13-Forum window from March 2025 through April 2026, the series reached 454 unique registrants across 19 or more countries, with an average of approximately 90 registrants per Forum and at least 68 confirmed…
$3,500 spent6% of program spendingBest of Earth Awards and Community Programming. Objective: To recognize excellence in immersive media (particularly Earth-themed fulldome work) and foster a year-round creator community. Accomplishments: Continued the Best of Earth Fulldome Awards coalition program with ICOFF (International Conference of Fulldome Festivals) and partner festivals, surfacing Earth-themed fulldome work for global circulation through coordinated awards and partner festival screening tours in conjunction with the 2025 festival. The inaugural Best of Earth awards were presented at DFW 2025 with Dome Fest West serving as the founding partner venue. Continued in-person and online community programming through partnerships with c3 Center for Conscious Creativity (Los Angeles) and the Creative Technology Center Foundation (Los Angeles) at the Brewery Arts Complex in Lincoln Heights, including co-produced in-person events, cross-promotion through reciprocal newsletter features, shared community discount codes, and reciprocal community engagement. Measurement: Coalition-level award program with multiple partner festivals; ongoing community partnerships with c3 and CTC; reciprocal newsletter cross-promotion.…
$2,500 spent4% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $57,562.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 $890 to $7k (+691%).
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.
22% of DOME FEST WEST’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. 1 of the last 3 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.
Board chair
Ed Lantz
Board Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
1 of 1 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 DOME FEST WEST’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.
Where its funders are
100% of DOME FEST WEST'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. $15k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
DOME FEST WEST has grown faster than three-quarters of the 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like DOME FEST WEST
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DOME FEST WEST: 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 DOME FEST WEST?
- DOME FEST WEST (California) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $15,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($15,000). 0 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 DOME FEST WEST have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $15,000 in grants to DOME FEST WEST.
- Who is the largest funder of DOME FEST WEST?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $15,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DOME FEST WEST 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 1 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