North Carolina · Nonprofit
Black Mountain School of Theology & Community
Black Mountain School of Theology & Community (North Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $270,000 to it, the largest being JOHN E FETZER INSTITUTE INC ($165,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $226k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $270k
- Net assets
- $110k
What Black Mountain School of Theology & Community does
Mission
To be a thriving, creative educational institution that counters systems of oppression and alienation through practices of co-learning and co-action for the purpose of advancing the pursuit of higher goods, the formation of durable communities, and the generation of faithful, structural change.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
As a nonprofit with an educational mission, our main program has focused on working with 21 church congregations in 2 separate cohorts to train them in the powerful process of theological action research, engaging over 100 congregants in our workshops. The learning process is 2 years and is aimed at helping these congregations learn to thrive. It moves them through skills of careful listening and relationship building to social analysis and community study for the purpose of helping them better connect with one another and with their community, as well as to identify keen needs in their community. We then walk them through a process of corporate discernment and into an initial action that is both an expression of their shared mission, identity, and values in service to their wider, local community. Our qualitative assessment of each congregation has reported widespread success in relationship building, community connection, and enhanced creative service.
$122,722 spent100% of program spendingAlong with this primary activity, we have offered regular consulting and coaching for clergy and community leaders. Part of this coaching and consulting has included site visits to each of the 21 congregations with which we have worked. Our program evaluations suggest that this has been an important and essential component for helping these institutions grow, develop, and become socially reactivated in their communities.
Finally, we have continued to conduct leadership academies, training dozens of young adults and faith-leaders in the essential practices of community organizing, social analysis, and collaborative action for equity and justice.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $122,722.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $29k to $117k (+307%).
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.
100% of Black Mountain School of Theology & Community’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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.
Board chair
Herbert Davis
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $10k → $195k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 Black Mountain School of Theology & Community’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
Black Mountain School of Theology & Community leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% 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
39% 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 Black Mountain School of Theology & Community.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 85% — 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.
Where its funders are
Black Mountain School of Theology & Community draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 1 state in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $105k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Black Mountain School of Theology & Community runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 7,334 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Black Mountain School of Theology & Community
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
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 Black Mountain School of Theology & Community: 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 Black Mountain School of Theology & Community?
- Black Mountain School of Theology & Community (North Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $270,000 to it, the largest being JOHN E FETZER INSTITUTE INC ($165,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Black Mountain School of Theology & Community have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $270,000 in grants to Black Mountain School of Theology & Community, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Black Mountain School of Theology & Community?
- JOHN E FETZER INSTITUTE INC is the largest funder on record, with $165,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Black Mountain School of Theology & Community 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 2 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