Minnesota · Nonprofit
ART START
ART START (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $140,157 to it, the largest being PAUL J WHITE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($45,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $507k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $140k
- Net assets
- $279k
What Art Start does
Mission
The mission of ArtStart, founded in 1988, has remained constant over its 36-year history: to foster artistic creativity and illuminate the connections among people, ideas, and the environment. Our artists engage children, families, and communities in quality arts education experiences that investigate environmental and cultural themes and use recycled materials. We say we do our work at the intersection of where art, environmental stewardship, and culture come together which enables us to address diversity, equity, and accessibility issues as they relate to our paradigm.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
: 1.) ArtStart's ArtScraps, providing low-cost, recycled materials to families, professional and young artists and organizations to further our message of environmental stewardship through the arts. ArtStart's ArtScraps Creative Materials and Ideas store: for the first 10 months, we were open to the public 3 days a week, Thurs-Sat. In June, we added Sundays, due to popular demand. We continued to make gains in revenue. Overall, revenue for the store was up almost 22% in FY25, from $94,162 in taxable income in FY24 to $121,340 in FY25.
$112,152 spent$131,428 earned by the program30% of program spending2.) Adult and Youth Development that includes community workshops in libraries and with social service organizations, school residencies, our Studio A in-store classes, and summer cultural arts camps to further our message of respect for our environment and honoring the arts of diverse cultures while employing artists from those cultures. ArtStart continued to implement community workshops working with the entire seven-county Metro library system, Washington Co., ScottCo., Hennepin Co., Ramsey Co., Carver Co., Anoka Co., Dakota Co., and the Saint Paul Public Library, as well as the Great River Regional Library system and those in southern Minnesota. Workshops emphasized cultural in twelve Minnesota counties that were free to the public. arts and reuse art workshops. In FY25 we provided 124 library workshops. * ArtStart implemented eight school residencies through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, plus twenty five additional residencies that were earned income. * It was a record summer for camp registrations. Our Passport to India Through the Arts and Teen Camp Create were filled with over 370 children ages 4 -17 years attending. In addition, for the second year we held…
$170,126 spentof which $15,000 as grants$207,317 earned by the program45% of program spending3. ArtStart Special Projects and Commissions provide emerging and experienced artists with income, training and support. This includes many program expenses that support the whole organization. * We provided artful reuse activities through a STAR grant at ten events in St Paul, including Irish Fair, Cinco de mayo, St Paul Pride, Twin Cities Jazz Fest and the Flint Hills Children's Festival at the Ordway Theater. We also served the greater Twin Cities area with thirteen additional workshops. * The board continued its fundraising initiatives holding a Fall and a Spring campaign through GiveMN. We saw an increase of more than 13% in our programming revenue overall.
$95,004 spentof which $15,775 as grants$39,425 earned by the program25% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $377,282.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $300k to $749k (+150%).
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: 2019 41% · 2020 33% · 2021 54% · 2022 46% · 2023 30% · 2024 29% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Anne Sawyer
Executive Director
Board chair
Sara Dovre Wudali
Board President
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $5 → $55k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 ART START’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
ART START leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% 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
59% 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 ART START.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 54% · 2022 76% · 2023 81% — 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
60% of ART START's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $40k 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.
Organizations like ART START
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 ART START: 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 ART START?
- ART START (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $140,157 to it, the largest being PAUL J WHITE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($45,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ART START have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $140,157 in grants to ART START, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ART START?
- PAUL J WHITE FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $45,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ART START find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Art Start →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), 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