California · Nonprofit
CREATE NOW INC
CREATE NOW INC (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,066,658 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($268,500). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $498k
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $26k
What Create Now Inc does
Mission
Create now provides youth with high-quality arts programs, enriching opportunities, and caring artists who often operate as mentors. We mainly focus on youth who are experiencing homelessness, in foster care, or experiencing other forms of challenges.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Volunteer programming: a robust volunteer program that connects artists and professionals with youth to lead workshops, mentor participants, and provide creative experiences. These programs foster personal growth, self-expression and community involvement, with over 200 volunteers supporting youth development
$69,411 spent15% of program spendingFunded programming - we provide comprehensive arts classes to students in title 1 schools throughout the region. We work with lausd and charter systems to bring programming to students from pre-k through 12th grade. Our school-based prorgrams include music programs, graphic design, writing, visual arts, and so much more. These programs are offered to youth of all grade levels. Our programs are also seen in group homes, shelters, or other partnering facilities around the city.
$396,984 spent$195,538 earned by the program85% of program spendingCommuntiy projects & events - several times per year we bring together families for festivals and holiday celebrations. Our events feature opportunities to enjoy art and performances, games, food, and lasting gifts for all children. Recently we have launched annual creative career fairs that bring in talented individuals and companies such as home depot, best buy, and dreamworks. We also arrange mural projects and talent shoes in low income neighborhoods.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $466,395.
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 2024 to 2025, from $177k to $26k (−85%).
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: 2019 8% · 2020 3% · 2021 21% · 2022 18% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of CREATE NOW INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Brandon Johnson
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $66k → $234k.
5 of 38 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 CREATE NOW INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 funders by total. 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
CREATE NOW INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
52% 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 CREATE NOW INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 25% · 2019 16% · 2020 22% · 2021 25% · 2022 22% · 2023 43% — growing more concentrated.
“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
26% of CREATE NOW INC'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
77% of CREATE NOW INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $413k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
CREATE NOW INC has grown faster than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like CREATE NOW 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 CREATE NOW 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 CREATE NOW INC?
- CREATE NOW INC (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,066,658 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($268,500). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CREATE NOW INC have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $1,066,658 in grants to CREATE NOW INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CREATE NOW INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $268,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CREATE NOW INC 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 Create Now →
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 38 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