North Carolina · Nonprofit
ARTS CENTER
ARTS CENTER (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $894,264 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($249,395). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $894k
- Net assets
- $3.0M
What Arts Center does
Mission
The artscenter exists in order to educate and inspire artistic creativity and to enrich the lives of people of all ages.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The artscenter's youth program is paramount to the mission since nearly half of the artscenter's patrons are under age 18. For over forty years, artscamp has offered week-long summer camp sessions for grades k-9, all taught by local professional teaching artists. Over these nine summer weeks, area youth explore over 150 arts education classes. Camps focus on skill development and discovering creative voices. In summer 2025, artscamp awarded 23 one-week scholarships and served 1,475 children. Sessions included african drumming for grades k-2, narrative art for grades 3-5, and ceramics for grades 6-9.youth afterschool provides arts enrichment and social emotional support during critical afterschool hours for chapel hill-carrboro youth grades k-5. Students learn a variety of artistic styles, explore cultural diversity, delve into social justice issues, and develop social skills by working in peer groups. Students participate in new art classes each month exploring techniques such as mixed media, printing & dying, and art lessons inspired by the masters. In 2025, ninety-seven students attended afterschool for either a full five-day week or a three-day week. Youth afterschool offered 7…
$905,328 spent$747,816 earned by the program44% of program spendingArtschool serves as the largest resource in orange county for learners of all ages to explore their artistic capacity and creativity. Sessions are offered quarterly throughout the year at various skill levels in areas such as painting, digital arts, writing, ceramics, improv, fiber arts, dance, 3d printing, laser cutting, photography and more. Through this program, local professional teaching artists encourage emerging artists and increase community appreciation of the arts. In 2025, artschool offered 341 classes serving residents of the greater triangle area including durham, hillsborough, pittsboro, apex, mebane, and raleigh. Program participants learn new skills while also developing fuller and more empathetic perspectives on other cultures and viewpoints. These experiences create a sense of community that is healthy, vibrant and equitable.
$556,797 spentof which $60,038 as grants$442,886 earned by the program27% of program spendingThe performances program aims to create an inspiring theater experience to both artists and patrons. Performances and events are curated to focus on local talent who bring music, improv, puppetry, theater and dance to the artscenter's stage. 2025 was the second full year for performances in the artscenter's new home; the new space offers flexible seating and updated technical equipment. The performance space is also rented to outside organizations such as departments at unc-ch and other nonprofit partners. Individuals may rent the space for private events such as parties, weddings, and end-of-life celebrations.
$281,012 spent$126,192 earned by the program14% of program spendingThe artscenter's artist in residence program places local professional teaching artists in all five of the orange county school district's title one elementary schools to enrich the existing curriculum through arts education, engagement and joy making. Air is a collaboration between orange county schools, orange county government and the artscenter and serves approximately 2,200 students by bringing 5-day artist-in-residencies to grades k-5. Additionally, each school enjoys two professional theater performance shows. These arts experiences are offered at no cost to the individual schools or families.the artscenter contains two art galleries that are open free-of-charge to the public and host exhibitions that rotate every six weeks. The exhibitions are curated to offer new perspectives and glimpses into diverse, cultural experiences in various media from local and regional artists. During 2nd friday artwalks, the gallery brings hundreds of visitors to the artscenter, where they experience the art of both established and up-and-coming artists. While in the space, visitors also learn of the many offerings of the artscenter and often have the chance to experience an art making…
$310,090 spent$251,171 earned by the program15% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,053,227.
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 $5.1M to $8.7M (+71%).
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 9% · 2018 6% · 2019 4% · 2020 13% · 2021 34% · 2022 5% · 2023 3% · 2024 4% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of ARTS CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Wendy Smith
Executive director
Board chair
Jackie Tanner
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 4 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $6k → $140k.
10 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 ARTS CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
ARTS CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
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 ARTS CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 65% · 2019 50% · 2020 32% · 2021 51% · 2022 25% · 2023 25% — 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
54% of ARTS CENTER'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
57% of ARTS CENTER's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $381k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $513k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
ARTS CENTER's revenue grew 52% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ARTS CENTER
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 ARTS CENTER: 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 ARTS CENTER?
- ARTS CENTER (North Carolina) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $894,264 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($249,395). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ARTS CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $894,264 in grants to ARTS CENTER, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ARTS CENTER?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $249,395 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ARTS CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Arts Center →
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 31 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