Washington · Nonprofit
FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL
FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL (Washington) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,844 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($25,913). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $94k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $67k
- Net assets
- $213k
What Fremont Arts Council does
Mission
The Fremont Arts Council (FAC) is a Seattle-based community arts organization founded in 1979. The FAC cultivates creativity, celebration, and belonging by engaging people of all backgrounds as active participants in the arts. We produce free and low-cost public events; including the Fremont Solstice Parade, Seattle's largest participatory art event, as well as May Day, Luminata, Trolloween, and Petit Troll. The FAC offers year-round workshops, artist grants, and open studio access at our home base, the Powerhouse. The FAC stewards beloved public art, the Fremont Troll. Rooted in the belief that art builds stronger communities, the FAC welcomes everyone, across backgrounds, abilities, and experience levels, to create, celebrate, and connect. The FAC engages community through free public festivals, open workshops, artist grants, and public art stewardship to cultivate a spirit of celebration where everyone is an artist.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Luminata is the Fremont Arts Council's annual autumn equinox celebration, held each September at Green Lake Park in Seattle. A free, all-ages evening of light, music, and community artistry, Luminata invites the public to mark the turning of the season by filling the night with handmade luminaries, illuminated art installations, live performance, and the collective glow of hundreds of participants walking together around the lake. The event is built on a foundation of community participation. In the weeks leading up to Luminata, the FAC hosts free, drop-in lantern-making workshops at the Powerhouse, the organization's home studio at 3940 Fremont Ave N in Seattle. Open to all skill levels and requiring no registration, these workshops give community members the opportunity to craft their own luminaries to carry in the procession. In 2025, workshops ran throughout August and September, welcoming neighbors of all ages to create alongside one another. On the evening of Saturday, September 20, 2025, the Green Lake Park came alive beginning at 5:30 PM, when a lantern shop opened near the Greenlake Boat House. Community members who were unable to attend workshops could purchase a lantern…
$16,788 spent19% of program spendingOn Saturday, May 3, 2025, the Fremont Arts Council celebrated with its May Day event at Meridian Park (near the Good Shepherd Center), 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle. This free, all-ages gathering welcomed the community to mark the arrival of summer with a potluck picnic, flower headdress making, children's crafts and games, live music, giant puppet performances, and a joyful dance around the Maypole. No registration was required. May Day offers Seattle residents a free, participatory public gathering rooted in shared creativity and seasonal tradition. By centering handmade art, communal food, and intergenerational play in a public park, the FAC removes barriers to cultural participation and strengthens neighborhood bonds. The event provides an accessible on-ramp for new audiences to experience the FAC's mission - that everyone is an artist - and builds the civic goodwill that sustains a healthy, connected community.
$1,406 spent2% of program spendingThe Fremont Troll is an 18-foot, 13,000-pound concrete and steel sculpture residing under the Aurora Bridge at N. 36th Street in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. In 1989, the Fremont Arts Council launched a public art contest using neighborhood matching funds to rehabilitate a neglected area under the bridge, and the community chose the troll design. Built in 1990, it has since become one of Seattle's most recognized landmarks, by some reports, second only to the Space Needle as a recognized symbol of Seattle. The Monumentous The FAC maintains ongoing stewardship of the sculpture, including cleaning, maintenance, and the surrounding Troll Knoll area. The Troll is a documented driver of neighborhood tourism, drawing visitors to Fremont's shops, restaurants, and breweries. In 2025, Seattle welcomed 40 million visitors who spent $8.8 billion, generating $12.3 billion in total economic impact. The Troll contributes directly to this ecosystem as a free, highly photogenic destination that consistently generates organic social media promotion of Seattle. On TripAdvisor, it holds a Travelers' Choice designation with over 1,500 reviews. The FAC activates the Troll as a living community…
$8,435 spent10% of program spendingThe 34th Annual Fremont Solstice Parade, produced by the Fremont Arts Council, took place on Saturday, June 21, 2025, marking the FAC's largest event of the year. This one-of-a-kind, people-powered spectacle featured over 60 community-based ensembles with giant puppets, stilt walkers, dazzling dancers, whimsical floats, jubilant musicians, and free-spirited cyclists transforming the streets of Fremont into a living work of art. The parade is proudly non-commercial; no printed words, logos, or motorized vehicles are permitted - making it a rare, purely human-powered celebration of creative expression. The parade started at 3rd and Leary, cruised along 36th Street, and wrapped near the Fremont Rocket. The celebration continued over the weekend of June 21-22 in partnership with the Fremont Fair, produced by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. The Solstice weekend draws more than 100,000 people to shop, eat, drink, and enjoy all manners of creative expression in the Fremont neighborhood. This concentration of visitors generates substantial direct economic benefit for Fremont businesses, restaurants, hotels, and vendors. Parking fundraisers at B.F. Day Elementary and Fremont Baptist…
$30,006 spent35% of program spendingThroughout 2025, the Fremont Arts Council offered free and low-cost public art classes and open studio hours at the Powerhouse, 3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle. The volunteer-run makerspace welcomed the public for low-cost or free registration. Classes covered giant puppet construction, reed luminary-making, sewing, float-building, and costume creation all taught by local artists using recycled and sustainable materials. In 2025, the FAC hosted a sold-out 8-day intensive large-scale puppetry workshop led by Donovan Zimmerman of the nationally recognized Paperhand Puppet Project. No prior experience is required for any program, making classes accessible to beginners, families, and artists at every level. By removing cost and experience barriers, the FAC ensures arts education is available to all Seattle residents, fulfilling its core mission that everyone is an artist.
$30,055 spent35% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $86,690.
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 $61k to $134k (+119%).
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.
74% of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $5k → $13k.
3 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL’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
FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
74% 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 FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 53% — diversifying over time.
“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
79% of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $31k 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
FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL has grown faster than half 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 FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL: 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 FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL?
- FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL (Washington) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,844 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($25,913). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $66,844 in grants to FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $25,913 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Fremont Arts Council →
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 6 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