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Gaston Arts Council at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Gaston Arts Council

To enrich gaston county by empowering artists and creative organizations through grants, advocacy, and community engagement, connecting artists with opportunities and promoting the arts to enhance the regions quality of life.

$182k
Granted FY2024still arriving
11
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0155% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2022.

Arts & Culture$136kOther$0
02FY2024 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 11 grants below total $168,757, the rows itemized in this filing. The $181,857 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $13,100 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $21k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $147k
$13,850
Median grant
1
States reached
$14k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GASTON COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY$35,000
LITTLE THEATRE OF GASTONIA$29,800
GASTON DANCE THEATRE$17,487
FRIENDS OF GASTON COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY$15,095
GASTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS$14,400
HELP CAROLINA INC$13,850
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM HISTORY & CULTURE$11,800
CAROLINAS STREET ARTS COLLABORATIVE$10,000
AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILT GUILD OF GASTON COUNTY$7,781
C&J CREATIVE EXPRESSION$7,775
GASTON COUNTY PARKS & REC$5,769
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%HELP CAROLINA INC: $14k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

61%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$230k · 4 repeat orgs$148k to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
5

Total granted

$230k
$41k

Still filing today

75%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $107k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’24
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • GS
    GASTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
    3× · 2021–2024 · $82k · revenue +58% · 26% of their budget
  • GD
    GASTON DANCE INC
    2× · 2021–2024 · $57k · revenue +63%
  • TL
    THE LITTLE THEATER OF GASTONIA INC
    2× · 2021–2024 · $44k · revenue +309% · 35% of their budget

Funded once

  • JL
    JUAN LOGAN LLC
    one grant, 2021 · $12k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $9k
  • AA
    AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY
    one grant, 2021 · $9k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Colleton County Arts Council

Promote cultural activities in colleton county, south carolina

Arts & Culture
2
Arts & Humanities Council of Charlotte Co Inc

Designated arts organization

—
3
Gaston Arts Council

To enrich gaston county by empowering artists and creative organizations through grants, advocacy, and community engagement, connecting artists with opportunities and promoting the arts to enhance the regions quality of life.

—
4
Greenville Theatre Arts Center
—
5
Gaston County Museum of Art & Histo Ry

Interpret the art and history of gaston county and the region through education, preservation, and collection.

Arts & Culture
6
Guild of Charlotte Artists

The Guild of Charlotte Artists GCA is a visual arts community in Charlotte NC Our mission is to help artists promote their work collaborate with other artists and build a sense of community and foster learning

Arts & Culture
7
Theatre of Gadsden Inc

Presents community theatrical shows

Arts & Culture
8
Galveston Artist Residency
Arts & Culture
9
Carolina Broadway Theatre Co

Produce professional quality theatre for educational and cultural purposes.

—
10
Touring Theatre of North Carolina Inc

Original theatre based on literature

—
11
Brewton Council of the Arts

Providing regular performances of the arts

—
12
Elements of Empowerment Inc

he mission of Elements of Empowerment, Inc. is to foster cultural awareness, acceptance, and preservation by educating, enriching, and empowering communities through artistic cultural programs, presentations and events.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is African American Quilt Guild of Gaston County; the most unlike its peers is Charlotte Street Art Collaborative. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 16 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
5/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GASTON DANCE INC: $57,487 · OtherGASTON DANCE INCIndividual grant recipient: $47,175 · OtherIndividual grant recipientGASTON COUNTY LEASE: $40,769 · OtherGASTON COUNTY LEASEFRIENDS OF THE GASTON CO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $15,095 · OtherFRIENDS OF THE GASTON CO PUBLIC LIBRARYJUAN LOGAN LLC: $12,000 · OtherJUAN LOGAN LLCIndividual grant recipient: $9,000 · OtherAFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY: $9,000 · OtherC&J CREATIVE EXPRESSION: $7,775 · Other+2 more: $11,417 · Other+2 moreGASTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS: $81,548 · Arts & CultureGASTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTSTHE LITTLE THEATER OF GASTONIA INC: $43,800 · Arts & CultureTHE LITTLE THEATER OF GASTONIA INCAFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY & CULTURE AT LORAY MILL INC: $11,800 · Arts & CultureAFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY & CULTURE A…CHARLOTTE STREET ART COLLABORATIVE: $10,000 · Arts & CultureCHARLOTTE STREET ART COLLABORATIVEAFRICAN AMERICAN QUILT GUILD OF GASTON COUNTY: $7,781 · Arts & CultureHELP CAROLINA INC: $13,850 · Human Services
Other$209,718Arts & Culture$154,929Human Services$13,850

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetGASTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS: $81,548 over 3y, 26% of budgetGASTON DANCE INC: $57,487 over 2y, 22% of budgetTHE LITTLE THEATER OF GASTONIA INC: $43,800 over 2y, 35% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE GASTON CO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $15,095 over 1y, 44% of budgetHELP CAROLINA INC: $13,850 over 1y, 17% of budgetAFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY & CULTURE AT LORAY MILL INC: $11,800 over 1y, 7.3% of budgetCHARLOTTE STREET ART COLLABORATIVE: $10,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetAFRICAN AMERICAN QUILT GUILD OF GASTON COUNTY: $7,781 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Gaston Community Foun…
Gaston Community FoundationNC13.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Gaston Community Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Gaston Arts Council funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Gaston Arts Council. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Gaston Arts Council?

    Find your warmest path to Gaston Arts Council through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $125k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2024, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

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