Rhode Island · Nonprofit
ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE
ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE (Rhode Island) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,986,344 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($3,675,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $6.0M
- Net assets
- $581k
What Artist Communities Alliance does
Mission
Believing the cultivation of new art and ideas is essential to human progress, our mission is to advocate for and support artists' communities, in order to advance the endeavors of artists.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Contracted and consulting services: aca partnerships with grantmakers (including pew fellowships in the arts and 3arts) provides residencies and fees to artists and residency hosts in the u.s., canada, and europe. Additionally, we consult directly with our member organizations with business planning and assessments.
$1,719,406 spentof which $542,801 as grants97% of program spendingEmerging program insitute: aca has historically hosted an annual conference to advance knowledge-sharing and exchange within the artist residency field. Since 2009, this conference has brought together arts leaders, community organizers, funders, policymakers, educators and cross-sector partners from around the world to gather in various cities across the united states. The annual conference has been on hold since 2020. Aca continues to build its virtual programming to make similar opportunities available throughout the year.
$48,969 spent$39,209 earned by the program3% of program spendingEquitable capacity workshop: grounded in the aac's five pillars of a healthy residency framework, these trainings engaged programs across five key areas of organizational health: identity, program design, stewardship, fund development, and operational excellence. This initiative provided tactical strategies for consistent program evaluation, equitable jury and selection models, staffing protocols and other key areas of residency operations. Artists' experience continued to be centered and artists served as lead presenters. Workshops, running in tandem with continued meta- network and field conversations, modeled a culture of reflection, transparency, and change. Cohorts of leaders created within these sessions buoyed a constellation of support and exchange across the field.
$8,870 spent$12,150 earned by the program0% of program spendingAca is an international network of artist communities and residency programs. Aca includes more than 400 members a diverse field of artist communities, residency programs, individuals and institutions that support living artists in the creation of new work in more than 20 countries worldwide and in all 50 u.s. States, with budgets ranging from 8,000 to 4 million. Aca members have access to a range of services and programs including knowledge sharing and advocacy.
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,777,245.
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 2021 to 2022, from $957k to $2.5M (+162%).
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 7% · 2018 5% · 2019 4% · 2020 12% · 2021 18% · 2023 5% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $52k → $1.8M.
4 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE’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
ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 69% · 2019 84% · 2020 48% · 2021 55% · 2022 74% · 2023 78% — 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
32% of ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $181k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $543k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$543k
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 ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE
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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE: 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 ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE?
- ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE (Rhode Island) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,986,344 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($3,675,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $5,986,344 in grants to ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,675,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 27 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