Georgia · Nonprofit
Fernbank Inc
Fernbank Inc (Georgia) receives grants from 121 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,194,327 to it, the largest being THE ZEIST FOUNDATION INC ($1,750,000). 67 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Fernbank Inc holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation Incshared funderslocal
- The O'Shaughnessy Family Foundationportfolio match
- The Chuck and Monica McQuaid Family Foundationportfolio match
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.
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: 2020 12% · 2021 33% · 2022 1% · 2023 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of Fernbank Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 28 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $309k → $1.9M.
14 of 121 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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: $8.2M from 6 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Robert W Woodruff Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Fernbank Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of Fernbank Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 121 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
Fernbank Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 22% · 2019 17% · 2020 11% · 2021 14% · 2022 24% · 2023 32% — 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
47% of Fernbank Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
64% of Fernbank Inc's grant income comes from Georgia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 121 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation Incshared funderslocalGA · backs 112 organizations that share your funders · funds 139 organizations near you
- The O'Shaughnessy Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Chuck and Monica McQuaid Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Center for Plant Conservation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- John H & Wilhelmina D Harland Charitable Foundationshared funderslocalGA · backs 74 organizations that share your funders · funds 90 organizations near you
- The Atlanta Womens Foundation Incshared funderslocalGA · backs 34 organizations that share your funders · funds 45 organizations near you
- The Sara Giles Moore Foundationshared fundersGA · backs 38 organizations that share your funders
- J B Fuqua Foundation Incshared funderslocalGA · backs 75 organizations that share your funders · funds 83 organizations near you
- Tr Ua Katherine J Murphy Fdn - Miscshared fundersFL · backs 31 organizations that share your funders
- Bobbie Bailey Foundation Incshared fundersGA · backs 47 organizations that share your funders
- Tr Uw Charles I Brananshared funderslocalMO · backs 138 organizations that share your funders · funds 194 organizations near you
- The Imlay Foundation Incshared funderslocalGA · backs 193 organizations that share your funders · funds 370 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Fernbank Inc
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 Fernbank 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Fernbank Inc?
- Fernbank Inc (Georgia) receives grants from 121 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,194,327 to it, the largest being THE ZEIST FOUNDATION INC ($1,750,000). 67 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Fernbank Inc have?
- IRS filings report 121 organizations giving $11,194,327 in grants to Fernbank Inc, 67 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Fernbank Inc?
- THE ZEIST FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Fernbank 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.
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 121funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing