California · Nonprofit
Center for Creative Exploration
Center for Creative Exploration (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,132 to it, the largest being BLANCHARD FOUNDATION ($69,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $163k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $74k
- Net assets
- $90k
What Center for Creative Exploration does
Mission
The Center for Creative Explorations mission is to encourage people of all backgrounds and abilities to use paint and paper as tools for exploring creative expression. We offer painting classes for both adults and children and their families.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
During 2025, CCE enrolled approximately 574 adult students. This included 88 scholarships (full or partial) and work trades for either health and/or financial reasons. Of those 574 adults, over 100 people participated via Online ZOOM classes, with many residing outside of California. In 2025 we also had a few students drop in online from Europe. CCE offered three weekly classes for adults throughout the year, and monthly introductory and daylong workshops. All classes were offered at a sliding scale, with the Introductory workshops offered at reduced fee to encourage members of the community to participate. CCEs Committed to the Core program, which was introduced in 2024 and had 12 people, grew to 16 people in 2025. They each committed to attending three 5-day intensives, and monthly meetings for 9 months of the year. We will expand this program in 2026 to include three 7-day intensives. We had already enrolled 17 people by the end of 2025.Additionally, the Kids and Family program served 285 kids and 95 parents throughout the year, with monthly Family Days, and several 8-week sessions of Childrens classes. We are adding new teachers, hired for trade, and expanding this program as…
$147,437 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $147,437.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $119k to $132k (+11%).
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.
22% of Center for Creative Exploration’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $5k → $14k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 Center for Creative Exploration’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
Center for Creative Exploration leans on a few funders — its largest provides 93% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 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
Center for Creative Exploration draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 1 state in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5k 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
Center for Creative Exploration has grown faster 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
Organizations like Center for Creative Exploration
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.
Public support
99%
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 Center for Creative Exploration: 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 Center for Creative Exploration?
- Center for Creative Exploration (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,132 to it, the largest being BLANCHARD FOUNDATION ($69,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Center for Creative Exploration have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $74,132 in grants to Center for Creative Exploration, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Center for Creative Exploration?
- BLANCHARD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $69,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Center for Creative Exploration 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 Center for Creative Exploration →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 3 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