North Carolina · Nonprofit
NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL
NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL (North Carolina) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $457,648 to it, the largest being WEAVER FOUNDATION INC ($95,329). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $458k
- Net assets
- $54k
What North Carolina Folk Festival does
Mission
The North Carolina Folk Festival honors, celebrates, and shares the meaningful ways in which communities express their creativity and cultural traditions through music, dance, food, crafts and other folk arts to enhance appreciation of diverse traditions and contribute to community vibrancy and inclusivity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The North Carolina Folk Festival typically presents a free, large-scale, three-day outdoor event. It features over 300 of the finest folk and traditional musicians, dancers, craftspeople, and other keepers of culture in performances, workshops, and demonstrations, plus children's activities, savory regional and global cuisines, craft brews, non-stop participatory dancing, storytelling, parades, and more. The 2025 festival hosted over 61 performing group and aritsts
$919,147 spent$312,060 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $919,147.
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 2024 to 2025, from $263k to $174k (−34%).
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 57% · 2021 29% · 2022 33% · 2023 25% · 2024 13% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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.
Chief executive
Jodee Ruppel
President/CEO
Board chair
Ray Covington
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023, and between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 10 funders, grant income rose $500 → $110k.
7 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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: $286k from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation D/B/A Wyndham Championship). These are real filings, and they are not money NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL raised.
From the IRS filings of NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL’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
NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 71% · 2020 26% · 2021 20% · 2022 21% · 2023 41% — 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.
How long its funders stay
60% of NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
82% of NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $77k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $359k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$359k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL: 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 NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL?
- NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL (North Carolina) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $457,648 to it, the largest being WEAVER FOUNDATION INC ($95,329). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $457,648 in grants to NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL?
- WEAVER FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $95,329 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL 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.
Play a game about who funds North Carolina Folk Festival →
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 20 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