California · Nonprofit
ARTS ORANGE COUNTY
ARTS ORANGE COUNTY (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,228,855 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($541,100). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $668k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Arts Orange County does
Mission
Arts Orange County is the leader in building appreciation of, participation in, and support for the arts and arts education in orange county, california, serving as the officially-designated local arts agency of the county of orange and state-local partner of the california arts council, a state agency.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Arts community building and arts leadership - building appreciation of, participation in and support for the arts and arts education throughout orange county, ca. During the covid-19 pandemic, Arts Orange County converted its professional development gatherings to virtual platforms, conducting more than 100 online meetings of 12 different cohorts of artists and arts leaders. Post pandemic, Arts Orange County has continued convening these cohorts both virtually and in-person. Providing expertise in cultural planning and public art project management to local government, including county of orange, cities of costa mesa, fullerton, irvine, newport beach, brea and placentia.
$340,433 spent$141,428 earned by the program57% of program spendingProductions and exhibitions, including (1) imagination celebration, amonth-long festival of arts for families and children, including diadel nino, a festival of arts for underserved families and children, (2) voices: veterans storytelling project, which engages military veterans in creative writing projects that recount their stories of life before, during and after military service, (3) poetry out loud, countywide student poetry recital competition, (4) creative writing classes for transitional age youth in orange county jail, and (5) creative edge lecture featuring blizzard entertainment founder mike morhaime.
$181,467 spent30% of program spendingSpark oc programs include regularly scheduled newsletters, e-mail promotions and social media posts. Spark oc also features a comprehensive countywide inventory of more than 1,000 works of art in public places, with information and locator maps. The inventory is updated monthly to reflect additions and works that may have been removed.
$80,126 spent$25,200 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $602,026.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2022 to 2023, from $1.1M to $2.0M (+91%).
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: 2018 16% · 2020 14% · 2021 25% · 2022 17% · 2023 6% · 2024 5% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
67% of ARTS ORANGE COUNTY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
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
Richard A Stein
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Rick M Smetanka
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 8 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $87k → $119k.
3 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 ORANGE COUNTY’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
ARTS ORANGE COUNTY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
49% 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 ORANGE COUNTY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 34% · 2019 35% · 2020 49% · 2021 44% · 2022 36% · 2023 71% — 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
50% of ARTS ORANGE COUNTY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
83% of ARTS ORANGE COUNTY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $593k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 ORANGE COUNTY is better cushioned than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding ARTS ORANGE COUNTY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $295k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$295k
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 ARTS ORANGE COUNTY
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 ARTS ORANGE COUNTY: 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 ORANGE COUNTY?
- ARTS ORANGE COUNTY (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,228,855 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($541,100). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ARTS ORANGE COUNTY have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,228,855 in grants to ARTS ORANGE COUNTY, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ARTS ORANGE COUNTY?
- ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $541,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ARTS ORANGE COUNTY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Orange County →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 19 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