Nebraska · Nonprofit
Blue River Arts Council Inc
Blue River Arts Council Inc (Nebraska) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $362,346 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($95,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $177k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $362k
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Blue River Arts Council Inc does
Mission
The Blue River Arts Council is bridging cultures, building community, and boosting the economy by operating the Isis Theatre and providing fun and artistic adventures for all of our geographic area.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
We offered an average of five events per week throughout the year including at least 6 first-run movies in Spanish and 5 community events that encouraged public health, civic engagement and community building. Because of strong support from area businesses, we were able to provide at least 20 free movies for our youth. By offering free events on school breaks and throughout the summer, the Arts Council is helping keep our kids active and entertained.
$71,502 spent$88,479 earned by the program58% of program spendingThe 2025 year was the first full year of operation for the renovated Isis Theatre. Thanks to grants and strong operating revenue (made possible by thousands of hours of volunteer time), we were able to pay $35,000 in principal on the capital loan and still complete some small tech improvements including adding HDMI throughout the building and new advertising monitors in the lobby.
$52,077 spent$88,338 earned by the program42% of program spendingOur arts-based progreamming still revolves primarily around coordination of art shows at the library in town and making our theatre venue available free of charge for an adult special-needs choir or local educational events for the high school or univerity. This, and all theatre programming, are only possible because we are able to leverage thousands of hours of volunteers who are teachers available to work daytime events in the summer and seniors who enjoy getting out of their homes and giving back to the community. As a result, we have 4-6 people with different backgrounds and unique interests and skills all interacting together. Every time we open the doors, we are building a strong and more vibrant community through this engagement.
$455 spent$402 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $124,034.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2023 to 2024, from $1.2M to $2.0M (+69%).
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: 2021 1% · 2022 74% · 2023 64% · 2024 38% · 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of Blue River Arts Council Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Shaylene Smith
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $28k → $74k.
3 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 Blue River Arts Council Inc’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
Blue River Arts Council Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 91% · 2021 67% · 2022 77% · 2023 68% — 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
60% of Blue River Arts Council Inc's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 31% 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
88% of Blue River Arts Council Inc's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14k 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
Blue River Arts Council Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Blue River Arts Council Inc
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 Nebraska
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
100%
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 Blue River Arts Council Inc: 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 Blue River Arts Council Inc?
- Blue River Arts Council Inc (Nebraska) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $362,346 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($95,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Blue River Arts Council Inc have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $362,346 in grants to Blue River Arts Council Inc, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Blue River Arts Council Inc?
- THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $95,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Blue River Arts Council Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. 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 Blue River Arts Council →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 16 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing