Kentucky · Nonprofit
APPALSHOP INC
APPALSHOP INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,707,666 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($1,509,097). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 89
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $9.0M
What Appalshop Inc does
Mission
Appalshop Inc. Is a non-profit multi-disciplinary arts and education center located in whitesburg, kentucky, in the heart of appalachia, producing original films, video, theater, music, spoken words recordings, radio, photography, and multi-media products.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Appalshop films continues its fifty-year plus tradition by continuing to document and tell the stories of the region. A working cohort of five young, up and coming filmmakers from the region has supported the full time filmmakers at appalshop and completed work for organizations and partners needing video assistance. The filmmakers' content has been distributed and shared with multiple film festivals, garnering awards at several recent events.
$354,652 spent$23,105 earned by the program18% of program spendingWmmt-fm, appalshop's public community radio station, broadcasting around the clock, primarily with volunteer disc jockeys, wmmt produces radio series that are distributed nationally and produces local programming including "mountain talk" that addresses local and regional issues. The community correspondents corps project is training people inside and outside of appalshop as local radio producers.
$295,954 spent$393,720 earned by the program15% of program spendingThe appalshop archive was first founded in 2003. Project staff, including two archivists, have evaluated the appalshop archives of film, video, and audio recordings, both finished products and "raw tape." they describe their work as "stabilizing and organizing the collection" so it can be made available to the public and community. This has included building a new vault, preservation of work in a variety of formats, cataloguing the materials, and improving access to collection. The archive project is working with other appalshop staff to make archival materials available to the public in new formats and to evaluate paper holdings.
$631,614 spent$295,571 earned by the program32% of program spendingAll other programs are operated to accomplish goals of appalshop. For example, other programs include: (1) the appalachia media institute: ami has trained local appalachia young people in media skills since 1988. (2) the community media institute: cmi works with people in grassroots community organizations to help them develop the skills to tell their own stories. The cmi "making connections project" documents initiatives of mountain communities to address repidly changing econimc and political realities. (3) seedtime on the cumberland, in its 36th year, is a multi-disciplinary arts festival bringing together some of the finest regional and national musicians, craftspeople, and vendors, as well as producing a series of film screenings and workshops. (4) the traditional music project supports traditional music in local communities with old-time days at appalshop; the after-school "passing the pick and bow" classes, in which traditional musicians teach children fiddle, banjo, and guitar; programming on wmmt and publicizing traditional regional music festivals. (5) many other programs to enlist the power of education, media, theater, music, and other arts to document and revitalize…
$718,168 spentof which $215,483 as grants$2,331,976 earned by the program36% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,000,388.
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 $8.3M to $9.3M (+13%).
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: 2017 23% · 2018 21% · 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 7% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of APPALSHOP INC’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. 4 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.
Chief executive
Tiffany Sturdivant
Executive director
Board chair
Betsy Whaley
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $218k → $2.3M.
21 of 89 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 APPALSHOP INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 89 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
APPALSHOP INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
39% 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 APPALSHOP INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 30% · 2019 36% · 2020 16% · 2021 23% · 2022 26% · 2023 51% — 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
40% of APPALSHOP INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
APPALSHOP INC draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
APPALSHOP INC is better cushioned than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding APPALSHOP INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.3M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$823k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$750k
- National Endowment for the Arts$595k
- Department of Commerce$63k
- National Archives and Records Administration$25k
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 APPALSHOP INC
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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
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 APPALSHOP INC: 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 APPALSHOP INC?
- APPALSHOP INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,707,666 to it, the largest being CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING ($1,509,097). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does APPALSHOP INC have?
- IRS filings report 89 organizations giving $11,707,666 in grants to APPALSHOP INC, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of APPALSHOP INC?
- CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING is the largest funder on record, with $1,509,097 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like APPALSHOP INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 89 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