Maryland · Nonprofit
COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS
COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS (Maryland) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $974,915 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($473,075). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $548k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $975k
- Net assets
- $269k
What Community Building Art Works does
Mission
Arts-based community building efforts
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
The organization broke its programs out into community workshops, population specific workshops, and events
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Community workshops consists of free, consistent, and enduring expressive art workshops that create a space for participants from population-specific programs to connect to a larger community once their program is completed. These workshops create a community of people who are able to reach across differences in demographics and life experience, to find connection and empathy. The public value of connection between veterans, military families, and the broader citizenship through these programs cannot be overstated.
$220,842 spent$40,742 earned by the program56% of program spendingPopulation specific workshop programming consists of short-term and enduring workshop series of all genres designed exclusively for active duty military and veterans; or military families and caregivers. Participants in these programs are introduced to the arts as a tool for self-care and resilience. These programs are a safe entry point for veterans and military-connected people to begin expressing the inexpressible. Having their self-expression witnessed by others with common experiences is powerful, expansive, healing, and often life-changing.
$122,484 spent31% of program spendingEvents are opportunities for selected participants, typically from the population-specific programs, to share their artwork and stories with the general public. These events are open to the public at a low-cost or are free, and always include an opportunity for artists and members of the public to connect and mingle. For the artist participants, the benefit is to be acknowledged and seen; and for members of the public, there is an opportunity to build empathy and connect with other stories, and through them perhaps connect more deeply with their own stories. The capstone in-person event, a day of belonging, is held each year in bethesda, maryland.
$49,245 spent$1,698 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $392,571.
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.
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 $134k to $270k (+102%).
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: 2022 13% · 2023 26% · 2024 44%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 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
Seema Reza
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $10k → $197k.
9 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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 COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS’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
COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 64% · 2020 38% · 2021 40% · 2022 66% · 2023 62% — 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
50% of COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
83% of COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS'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 $168k that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 6 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $807k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Government funding COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $300k on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$300k
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 COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS
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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% 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 COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS: 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 COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS?
- COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS (Maryland) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $974,915 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($473,075). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $974,915 in grants to COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $473,075 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNITY BUILDING ART WORKS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Community Building Art Works →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 15 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