California · Nonprofit
TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION
TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,031,197 to it, the largest being MEDTRONIC COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION ($255,880). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $885k
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $831k
What Two Bit Circus Foundation does
Mission
The organization serves children in all economic situations by creating learning experiences to inspire entrepeneurship, encourage young inventors and install environmental stewardship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Minimizes environmental waste and maximizes innovative classroom education by capturing manufacturers' over-runs and clean discards headed to landfills and redirecting them to teachers for hands-on learning. The organization collaborates with over 900 educators PK-12 to support science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics STEAM education with affordable materials and professional development, while incorporating environmental sustainability.
$868,725 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $868,725.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.4M to $2.7M (+88%).
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: 2021 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 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.
Board chair
Brent Bushnell
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $36k → $276k.
7 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 23 of 24 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
TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
29% 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 TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 70% · 2019 38% · 2020 83% · 2021 87% · 2022 87% · 2023 93% — 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
20% of TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 25% 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
52% of TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $244k 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
TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 4 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION
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
87% 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 TWO BIT CIRCUS 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION?
- TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,031,197 to it, the largest being MEDTRONIC COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION ($255,880). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $1,031,197 in grants to TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION?
- MEDTRONIC COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $255,880 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TWO BIT CIRCUS FOUNDATION 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 Two Bit Circus →
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 24 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