Georgia · Nonprofit
ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC
ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC (Georgia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,108 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($10,345). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $104k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $18k
- Net assets
- $14k
What Escape Artists Foundation Inc does
Mission
Escape Artists Foundation publishes free, audio speculative short fiction to a global audience and cultivates a community of people who love to create and appreciate science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult speculative fiction.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
FIRST YEAR-END FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN: Throughout November and December 2024, Escape Artists Foundation (EA) ran our first year-end campaign with a matching gift challenge. We surpassed our goal of $7,000, ultimately receiving $7,158 in donations. Since becoming a registered U.S. nonprofit in 2022, EA's crew have been diligently working to ensure the organization's long-term financial sustainability through annual giving campaigns, by cultivating donors and subscribers, and by seeking out institutional funding and sponsorships. EA is currently in a strong financial position with a dedicated and growing base of individual and major regular donors.
$0 spent$7,158 earned by the program0% of program spendingCAST OF WONDERS RECEIVED FIRST MAJOR AWARD NOMINATIONS: --Cast of Wonders (CW), EA's young adult speculative fiction podcast, achieved remarkable recognition in 2024, including our first nominations for both the Ignyte Outstanding Fiction Podcast Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Audio Work. --CW celebrated publishing our 600th story, "Double Yellow Lines" by a young adult author J.M. Bueno. --Several CW individual stories gained significant acclaim, including E.J. Delaney's "Forbidden Voices", nominated for the Woollahra Digital Literary Award, and Seoung Kim's "Park's All-Night Ramyun and Snack Emporium", recognized in the 2024 edition of _Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy_. --CW's talented editorial team also gained recognition, with Associate Editor Somto Ihezue receiving a Nommo award nomination and collaborating on a short film based on a previously published CW story. --CW crew members represented the podcast at WorldCon in Glasgow Scotland, participating in panels on book bans and presenting academic work.
$14,481 spent18% of program spendingPODCASTLE - PALESTINIAN VOICES SPOTLIGHT: In solidarity with the people of Palestine, in November 2024 PodCastle (PC), EA's fantasy fiction podcast, featured four stories by Palestinian authors to elevate these artists and their work while highlighting the injustices Palestinians face. The featured stories included: "Al-Kahf" by Beesan Odeh, narrated by Zeina Sleiman; "Handala. The Olive, The Storm, and the Sea" by Sonia Sulaiman, narrated by Peter Adrian Behravesh; "Badia's Magic Water" by Maya Abu-Alhayyat, narrated by Mahtab Chenevix-Trench; and "The Witch of Endor" by Karim Kattan, narrated by Amal Singh. Original graphic artwork was commissioned from Iasmin Omar Ata. PC hopes our audience comes to a greater appreciation of Palestine beyond headlines of tragedy-as a land rich with joy, culture, and above all, people who suffer, hope, cry, love, and dream as we all do. We aim for this perspective to stay with the audience in the face of prevalent narratives that would overshadow these fundamental truths.
$2,003 spent2% of program spendingPUBLISHING VOLUME: --In 2024 Escape Artists Foundation published 216 podcast episodes in our five speculative fiction podcasts.
$64,253 spent80% of program spending2024 PODCAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR CAST OF WONDERS: --Finalist for the British Fantasy Society Best Audio Work award. --Finalist for the Outstanding Fiction Podcast Ignyte award. --"Forbidden Voices" by E. J. Delaney was nominated for the 2024 Woollahra Digital Literary Award. --"Park's All-Night Ramyun and Snack Emporium" by Seoung Kim was listed as one of the notable works of 2023 in the 2024 edition of _Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy_, edited by Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams. --We published our 600th Cast of Wonders episode in August 2024 and celebrated with a story by a young adult author, "Double Yellow Lines" by J. M. Bueno. --Associate Editor Somto Ihezue was nominated for a Nommo award for his short story "-Like Stars Daring to Shine". Somto is also involved in an exciting collaboration with Innocent Chizaram Ilo on a short film ("On our Skin") based on Innocent's story "Our Skin Will Now Bear the Testimonies", which was published by Cast of Wonders during our 2019 "Banned Books Week" event.
$0 spent0% of program spending2024 PODCAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR CATSCAST: --"Mandy and Lulu Welcome Walter", a CatsCast original by S. M. Hallow, was selected for inclusion in _We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023_, edited by Ryka Aoki and Charles Payseur. This is CatsCast's first-ever "year's best" anthology recognition.
$0 spent0% of program spending2024 PODCAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR ESCAPE POD: --Finalist for Best Semiprozine Hugo Award. --"Emotional Resonance" by V. M. Ayala was selected for _The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024_ edited by Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams.
$0 spent0% of program spending2024 PODCAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR PODCASTLE: --Finalist for the British Fantasy Society Best Audio Work award. --Finalist for the Outstanding Fiction Podcast Ignyte award.
$0 spent0% of program spending2024 PODCAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR PSEUDOPOD: --Celebrated publishing our 900th PseudoPod story. --Finalist for the British Fantasy Society Best Audio Work award. --"A Box of Hair and Nail" by Geneve Flynn selected to appear in _Brave New Weird, Volume 2_ edited by Alex Woodroe with Matt Blairstone.
$0 spent0% of program spendingESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION'S ACTIVITIES: --Escape Artists Foundation ("EA") is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Our mission is to bring free and accessible speculative audio fiction to a global audience. Our award-winning content is downloaded or streamed millions of times each year. EA's family of five podcasts include the original speculative fiction podcasts: Escape Pod (science fiction, published since 2005), PseudoPod (horror, published since 2006), PodCastle (fantasy, published since 2008), Cast of Wonders (young adult speculative fiction, published since 2016) and CatsCast (a beloved April Fools' Day issue that spawned a monthly bonus podcast, published since 2020).
$0 spent0% of program spendingORGANIZATION HIGHLIGHTS: --Launched in 2005, Escape Pod was the first paying market for speculative fiction short stories published in audio. Our format and the use of the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license have become the standard used by most speculative fiction publications today. --Every year, EA publishes over 200 stories, both original fiction and reprints, which are downloaded millions of times annually by a global audience. --EA cultivates an online community of our audience, writers, narrators, and editors across social media platforms, including Discord and Twitch. --EA invests significant effort in matching representative voice talent with each story to give full effect to the author's artistic intent. --Each podcast episode includes additional host commentary, context, and background on the story's themes and elements. --Full transcripts of each episode (both host material and story text) are made available for free, and contain appropriate content warnings both in text and audio. --EA is largely supported by small donations from our audience. In 2024 we received donations from over 1600 unique donors, with an average…
$0 spent0% of program spendingESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION'S HISTORY: --Escape Artists is a pioneer in our field. Escape Pod was the first ever audio fiction, submissions-based podcast. --Founded in 2005 by Serah Eley, our first podcast, Escape Pod, published a single science fiction short story every week. Unlike print magazines of the day, our stories were available for free under the then new Creative Commons license, and were distributed in the bleeding edge podcast syndication format as audio recordings. --Escape Pod's sibling podcasts, PseudoPod for horror, and PodCastle for fantasy, were launched in 2006 and 2008. And the podcast explosion followed. We have published continuously from 2005 to today. --Eley stepped away from EA in 2014, handing the reins over to Alasdair Stuart. --EA published the digital magazine, Mothership Zeta, from 2015 to 2017. --In 2015 all our venues became Science Fiction Writers' of America-qualified markets, and the podcasts launched universal narrator pay. --In 2016 EA added a fourth show, Cast of Wonders focused on speculative fiction for young adults (YA), and we began publishing anthologies with PseudoPod's 10th anniversary debut _For Mortal Things Unsung_. --In 2020 we…
$0 spent0% of program spendingESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION'S VALUES: --COMPENSATE THE CREATIVE: We pay every single person involved in our publications: writers and narrators, artists and producers; and our entire crew from interns and associate editors ("slush readers") to senior editors and hosts. All made possible by the generous support of our donors and patrons. --WIDEN THE CIRCLE: We actively seek authors whose stories are often underrepresented in mainstream publishing, including writers of color, people living with disabilities, neurodivergent individuals, and LGBTQ+ folks. We take pride in sharing stories, voices, and perspectives speculative fiction fans cannot find elsewhere, so that they can experience the sense of wonder and community this genre inspires in people from all different backgrounds and all across the world. --SHORT FICTION & AUDIO ADVOCATES: We all lead busy lives but our over-packed schedules should not keep us from enjoying great fiction. Most of EA's podcast episodes are around 30 minutes long - the average US commute. Thousands of our listeners tell us they enjoy our shows on road trips, in the gym, or during a whole range of daily activities.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 13 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $80,737.
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 2023 to 2024, from $16k to $20k (+26%).
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.
100% of ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Board chair
Marguerite Kenner
President/board chair/treasurer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC’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
ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% 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
94% 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 ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC.
“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
94% of ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC'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. Of the $1k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Georgia, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC
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 Georgia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% 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 ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC: 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 ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC?
- ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC (Georgia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,108 to it, the largest being RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND ($10,345). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $18,108 in grants to ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC?
- RAYMOND JAMES CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $10,345 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ESCAPE ARTISTS FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 Escape Artists →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2023–2024), 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