North Carolina · Nonprofit
CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC
CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,063,651 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,020,731). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.2M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $9.9M
What Charlotte Mecklenburg Afro-American Cultural and Service Center Inc does
Mission
The harvey b. Gantt center for african-american arts and culture (formerly the charlotte-mecklenburg afro-american cultural and service center) exists to present, preserve and promote african american art, culture and history for the education and enlightenment of all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Institutional focusmarking its 50th anniversary in 2024, the gantt center is a private, 501c3 non-profit cultural center focused on multidisciplinary arts. The 46,500 sq. Ft. Center houses three galleries: a multipurpose theater for workshops, programs, and presentations; a digital arts studio; a rooftop terrace; administration offices; an art preparation area; and on-site art storage. The building, located in the historic brooklyn neighborhood of charlotte, nc, is a key structure in the levine center for the arts, a corporate and cultural campus featuring three cultural facilities, which include the gantt center and a performing arts center, all completed in 2009-2010.named for harvey b. Gantt, the prominent charlotte architect, community leader, and former mayor of charlotte, the gantt center is housed in an award-winning structure (aia north carolina honor award, 2010). Nearly 500,000 people have visited the center since the facility opened in 2009, and approximately 50,000 visits (in-person and online) annually. Formally known as the afro-american cultural center, it began in 1974 as a cultural festival. Dr. Mary harper and dr. Bertha maxwell roddey, faculty members with the…
$2,986,000 spent$390,236 earned by the program100% of program spendingInitiative for equity + innovationin the fall of 2018, the gantt center launched its initiative for equity and innovation, or iei, as a strategic and permanent response to the nationally viewed riots that ensued in 2016 as a result of the shooting of keith lamont scott- a black man killed by charlotte-mecklenburg police. Our strategy is to be proactive rather than reactive in our approaches to effect change. Through iei, we create cultural experiences and engage the community in conversations that build awareness about the systematic oppression that has long affected black people and communities of color. Although historical contexts of social justice are explored, the premise of iei is primarily solution-based. Harvard's chetty study further shaped our strategy to implement the initiative, which ranked charlotte 50 out of 50 in economic mobility among the nation's largest cities. The chetty study, along with the 2016 uprising, put a spotlight on longstanding racial divides and undeniable barriers to economic mobility, quality education, and fair access to resources and opportunity.we are charlotte's largest and most prominent black-led nonprofit organization and one of the…
Exhibitions and programmingexhibitionsthe gantt center's artistic vision exemplifies the use of art as activism while embracing innovation and intellectual thought- essential ingredients to fulfilling the critical need for a more vibrant charlotte. As an innovative institution that prides itself on the quality of artistic works and programs presented to the community, the foundation of our vision lies on the premise that african-american art and culture, although under-represented and underfunded, must claim and own its place among mainstream cultural institutions. The gantt's iei focuses directly on access, inclusion and equity issues in the community, which has served to heighten our awareness internally and shifted our organizational strategies and practices. We ensure that our exhibitions align with the most pressing needs of our community, as well as provide a platform for education through the lens of artists, as seen in exhibitions such as choose your weapon, visual vanguard, welcome to brookhill, jamel shabazz: reflections of a people and visible man: art and black male subjectivity.modain may 2023, the gantt center opened the mecca of digital arts (moda) digital arts…
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,986,000.
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 $8.6M to $11M (+23%).
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: 2017 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 5% · 2021 12% · 2022 9% · 2023 2% · 2024 6% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Bonita Buford
President & CEO
Board chair
Joni Y Davis
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $786k → $2.4M.
10 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER 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
CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
71% 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 CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 56% · 2019 54% · 2020 25% · 2021 47% · 2022 48% · 2023 37% — 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
53% of CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
59% of CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 13 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $325k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$300k
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
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 CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER 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 CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC?
- CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,063,651 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,020,731). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $12,063,651 in grants to CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $4,020,731 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG AFRO-AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SERVICE CENTER INC 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.
Play a game about who funds Charlotte Mecklenburg Afro-American Cultural and Service Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 28 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