California · Nonprofit
Fairytale Town Inc
Fairytale Town Inc (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,169,637 to it, the largest being Sacramento Region Community Foundation ($481,190). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $7.8M
What Fairytale Town Inc does
Mission
Fairytale Town is dedicated to promoting the imagination, creativity and education of children. Our vision is to inspire, educate and strengthen communities through play. Fairytale Town strives to reach out to new audiences through developing innovative and meaningful programming.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Since opening in 1959, Fairytale Town has welcomed families from all over the world through Humpty Dumptys gate into an enchanted realm. Today, we are welcoming our fourth generation of visitors into two and a half acres of magic and fun that have stood the test of time.A nonprofit children's storybook park and education center, Fairytale Town is home to three-dimensional playsets based on favorite fairytales and nursery rhymes, a family of barnyard animals, interactive learning gardens, two performing arts stages, and an off-site adventure playground. Significant physical improvements and innovative programming have established Fairytale Town as an important destination that promotes quality family time, play, creativity, imagination, learning and fun.Fairytale Town remains the only literacy-based park that serves children in this region. Year-round special events and educational programming introduce literacy and creative experiences to approximately 250,000 visitors each year. Park attractions include King Arthurs Castle, the Giants Foot from Jack and the Beanstalk, a Pirate Ship, Robin Hoods Sherwood Forest, Mr. McGregors Garden, and the Mother Goose Stage. Numerous slides are…
$2,268,440 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,268,440.
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 2021 to 2022, from $4.8M to $6.8M (+41%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 7% · 2022 25% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
32% of Fairytale Town Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 8 funders, grant income fell $137k → $106k.
7 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 Fairytale Town Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. 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
Fairytale Town Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 55%; half comes from just 3 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
71% 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 Fairytale Town Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 61% · 2019 43% · 2020 57% · 2021 27% · 2022 37% · 2023 54% — broadly stable.
“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
46% of Fairytale Town Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
55% of Fairytale Town 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 $521k that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $649k 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
Fairytale Town Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Fairytale Town 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 Fairytale Town 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 Fairytale Town Inc?
- Fairytale Town Inc (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,169,637 to it, the largest being Sacramento Region Community Foundation ($481,190). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Fairytale Town Inc have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $1,169,637 in grants to Fairytale Town Inc, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Fairytale Town Inc?
- Sacramento Region Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $481,190 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Fairytale Town Inc 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 Fairytale Town →
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 36 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing