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Illinois · Nonprofit

ART WORKS PROJECTS

ART WORKS PROJECTS (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $646,252 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($250,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$100k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$646k
Net assets
$113k
10/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 78%
01What it does

What Art Works Projects does

Mission

Art work projects' mission is to use design and the arts to raise awareness of and educate the public about significant human rights issues.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. In 2024 Art Works Projects continued to sustain the distribution and support of our fellows' works across a myriad of platforms and presentation opportunities in chicago and globally. Our primary accomplishment was earning a spot as an exhibitor at the 2024 photoville festival, featuring a group show of 8 of our emerging lens fellows, raising the profile of their work to an international audience of over 3 million visitors.

    $84,122 spentof which $12,000 as grants
    50% of program spending
  2. Art Works Projects saw an immense growth of our research practice as a leader in trauma-informed storytelling and were invited to present our work in a number of conferences, workshops, and symposiums, including as a featured partner at the annual movies that matter international film festival in the hague, netherlands in march 2024. Thanks to the understood value of this field of work, we received a collaborative grant from the simmons center for global chicago to continue to advance our fieldwork and development of literature in care-centered storytelling practices in the international development space.

    $55,550 spent
    33% of program spending
  3. Art Works Projects saw huge success with our borders cruzadas: a welcoming place outdoor installation series in partnership with the chicago park district. Through this project, we have deepened our community partnerships with community and direct aid organizations lacking access to high quality arts and cultural experiences, and have been able to sponsor special workshops, photography walk-abouts, and arts education workshops with a range of stakeholders across the chicagoland area.

    $29,152 spent
    17% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $168,824.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($357k) Expenses 100 ($397k) Net assets 100 ($113k)2018 Revenue 25 ($90k) Expenses 38 ($152k) Net assets 45 ($51k)2019 Revenue 77 ($274k) Expenses 31 ($121k) Net assets 179 ($203k)2020 Revenue 42 ($149k) Expenses 29 ($115k) Net assets 209 ($237k)2021 Revenue 108 ($385k) Expenses 34 ($135k) Net assets 431 ($487k)2023 Revenue 31 ($109k) Expenses 60 ($239k) Net assets 222 ($251k)2024 Revenue 28 ($100k) Expenses 60 ($238k) Net assets 100 ($113k)
2017201820192020202120232024
Revenue (28)Expenses (60)Net assets (100)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $255k to $493k (+94%).

$117k
$52k
$206k
$255k
$493k
$265k
$124k
2017201820192020202120232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

97% of ART WORKS PROJECTS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 18,808 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

−$40k
’17
−$62k
’18
$152k
’19
$34k
’20
$251k
’21
−$130k
’23
−$139k
’24
44
months of
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

Ivan Arenas

Chairman

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

201720192021
Listed5912
Joined···
No longer listed···
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 7 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $216k → $28k.

6 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 WORKS PROJECTS’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 WORKS PROJECTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 39% 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

37% 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 WORKS PROJECTS.

39%
largest funder
55%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 69% · 2018 36% · 2019 75% · 2020 60% · 2021 71% · 2022 73% · 2023 71% — broadly stable.

“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 ART WORKS PROJECTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

72% of ART WORKS PROJECTS's grant income comes from Illinois funders.

MN
IL
NY
DE
AZ
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Illinois out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $195k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

ART WORKS PROJECTS's revenue fell 72% between 2017 and 2024.

Operating margin−139% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−17% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024

Government funding ART WORKS PROJECTS receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $40k on record.

Federal$40k
grants $40kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$40k

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 ART WORKS PROJECTS

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 Illinois

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

83%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ART WORKS PROJECTS: 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.

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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 WORKS PROJECTS?
ART WORKS PROJECTS (Illinois) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $646,252 to it, the largest being JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ($250,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ART WORKS PROJECTS have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $646,252 in grants to ART WORKS PROJECTS, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ART WORKS PROJECTS?
JOHN D AND CATHERINE T MACARTHUR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ART WORKS PROJECTS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Works Projects →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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