South Carolina · Nonprofit
Auntie Karen Foundation
Auntie Karen Foundation (South Carolina) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $93,078 to it, the largest being CENTRAL CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($82,664). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $93k
- Net assets
- $177k
What Auntie Karen Foundation does
Mission
The Auntie Karen Foundation is a global non-profit in South Carolina whose mission is to create and implement a series of reproducible community outreach programs to empower, enlighten and educate through the arts. The Legends of Concert series is the signature event for the Auntie Karen Foundation, which strives to keep the legacy of African-American music alive.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Artpreneur: Arts in Education - Throughout 2025, the Foundation continued its longstanding partnerships with public school districts throughout South Carolina to provide Arts in Education and STEAM programming, with a special emphasis on rural and underserved communities. Programs continued in school districts including Williamsburg County School District, Marion County School District, and Colleton County School District, where professional teaching artists collaborated with educators to integrate the arts into classroom instruction. Students participated in visual arts, music, dance, theatre, creative writing, entrepreneurship, and arts integration experiences that increased student engagement, strengthened academic achievement, encouraged creativity, and supported social and emotional learning. The Foundation also continued providing professional development that equips educators with innovative arts integration strategies to enhance teaching and learning across multiple subject areas. The Foundation continued its longstanding partnerships with public school districts, colleges and universities, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, artists, businesses, and community…
$836,684 spent$840,140 earned by the program80% of program spendingLegends of... Concert Series continued its tradition of bringing Grammy Award winning artists to South Carolina while celebrating excellence in music and preserving the rich legacy of African American culture. During 2025, the Foundation presented the 21st LEGENDS of... Concert Series featuring five time Grammy Award winner PJ Morton. More than a concert, the event served as a cultural and educational experience that supported cultural tourism, created paid performance opportunities for South Carolina musicians, vocalists, visual artists, and creative professionals, and strengthened the state's creative economy. As part of the LEGENDS experience, the Foundation hosted the LEGENDS Master Class, providing hundreds of students with direct access to Grammy Award winning artists and accomplished music industry professionals. Students participated in educational workshops, live demonstrations, and career discussions that encouraged artistic excellence while exposing them to careers in music, entertainment, and the creative industries.
$191,787 spent$231,781 earned by the program18% of program spendingYoung Entrepreneurs - During 2025, the Foundation celebrated the 20th Annual Auntie Karen Young Entrepreneurs Conference, one of South Carolina's longest running youth entrepreneurship conferences. The 2025 conference theme, "Legacy Moves Forward: AI Ready," reflected the Foundation's commitment to preparing the next generation of leaders to thrive in an economy increasingly shaped by innovation and artificial intelligence. The conference equipped middle and high school students with entrepreneurship, leadership, financial literacy, business development, career readiness, and emerging technology skills through hands on learning experiences, business competitions, and interaction with successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, and community partners. A defining characteristic of the conference is its lasting impact. Former Young Entrepreneurs participants continue to return as successful business owners, professionals, speakers, judges, mentors, and volunteers, inspiring the next generation of student entrepreneurs while demonstrating the long-term value of investing in youth leadership and entrepreneurship. The conference serves as a multigenerational pipeline that develops…
$7,695 spent$4,000 earned by the program1% of program spendingGordon Sales - During 2025, the Foundation established a new partnership with the South Carolina GEAR UP program to expand career readiness, entrepreneurship, leadership, and artificial intelligence education for students across the state. Planning and curriculum development began during the year, laying the foundation for program implementation in 2026 through the Foundation's Coach Al Career Readiness initiative. The Foundation also continued developing original educational intellectual property through children's books, curriculum, music, digital media, and online educational resources that extend learning beyond the classroom while encouraging literacy, creativity, character development, and lifelong learning.
$4,483 spent$1,121 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,040,649.
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 2020 to 2021, from $572k to $139k (−76%).
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 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
8% of Auntie Karen Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $24k → $18k.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% 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 Auntie Karen Foundation’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
Auntie Karen Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 89% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 Auntie Karen Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 94% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
89% of Auntie Karen Foundation'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 $10k that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from funders outside South Carolina, across 2 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $83k 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.
Against its field
Auntie Karen Foundation has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,928 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Auntie Karen Foundation
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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Auntie Karen Foundation: 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 Auntie Karen Foundation?
- Auntie Karen Foundation (South Carolina) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $93,078 to it, the largest being CENTRAL CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($82,664). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Auntie Karen Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $93,078 in grants to Auntie Karen Foundation, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Auntie Karen Foundation?
- CENTRAL CAROLINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $82,664 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Auntie Karen Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South 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 Auntie Karen →
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 4 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