North Carolina · Nonprofit
First Colony Foundation
First Colony Foundation (North Carolina) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $205,500 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM BROWN FOUNDATION INC CO MORRISON COHEN LLP ($106,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
First Colony Foundation's revenue fell 66% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,650 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
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 Durham Arts Council Inclocal
- Virginia Historical Societyportfolio match
- Co Tua Marion S Covington Fdnportfolio 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.
82% of First Colony Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 4 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $17k → $10k.
From the IRS filings of First Colony Foundation’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
First Colony Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 52% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 70% · 2019 63% · 2020 71% · 2021 53% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
First Colony Foundation draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 7 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Durham Arts Council InclocalNC · funds 90 organizations near you
- Virginia Historical Societyportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Co Tua Marion S Covington Fdnportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Milton & Betty Holcombe Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Roller-Bottimore Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- General Society of Colonial Warsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Joseph Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Thorne Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Peebles Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Seilheimer Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- M Holt Massey Charitable Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Charles and Helen Reichert Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
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 First Colony Foundation
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
93%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for First Colony Foundation: 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 First Colony Foundation?
- First Colony Foundation (North Carolina) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $205,500 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM BROWN FOUNDATION INC CO MORRISON COHEN LLP ($106,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does First Colony Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $205,500 in grants to First Colony Foundation, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of First Colony Foundation?
- THE WILLIAM BROWN FOUNDATION INC CO MORRISON COHEN LLP is the largest funder on record, with $106,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like First Colony Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 7funders 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