Texas · Nonprofit
Creative Action
Creative Action (Texas) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,121,900 to it, the largest being ST DAVID'S FOUNDATION ($1,007,205). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.2M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $6.1M
- Net assets
- $6.3M
What Creative Action does
Mission
Creative Action is a team of professionally trained artists and educators that works in partnership with schools and communities to lead unique and engaging which allow young people to learn critical life skills, gain tools for creative expression, and have successful experiences that build self-esteem and confidence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
After School provides daily programming that uses theater- and art-based curricula to explore social issues, build self-esteem, and enrich students' academic experience in the school system. Students explore diversity through mask and puppet making, act out folktales in world theater classes, write original performances, and create parades in order to learn how to think creatively, work as a team, and believe in themselves.
$3,437,023 spent$1,568,625 earned by the program92% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$74,718 spent$514,223 earned by the program2% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$74,718 spent$22,597 earned by the program2% of program spendingYouth Theatre Ensembles middle and high school students create original interactive theatrical shows based on their own experiences. The companies then tour throughout the year to educate their peers on topics like dating violence, immigration, healthy lifestyle choices, and education.
$149,436 spent$200 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,735,895.
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 2021 to 2022, from $3.5M to $5.6M (+60%).
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 17% · 2020 20% · 2021 61% · 2022 8% · 2023 40% · 2024 11% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of Creative Action’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (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.
Board chair
Chris Davis
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $296k → $742k.
11 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 Creative Action’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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
Creative Action has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% 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
51% 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 Creative Action.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 14% · 2019 38% · 2020 23% · 2021 27% · 2022 56% · 2023 32% — 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
38% of Creative Action's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
78% of Creative Action's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M 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
Creative Action runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Creative Action receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $449k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$449k
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 Creative Action
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 Creative Action: 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 Creative Action?
- Creative Action (Texas) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,121,900 to it, the largest being ST DAVID'S FOUNDATION ($1,007,205). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Creative Action have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $6,121,900 in grants to Creative Action, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Creative Action?
- ST DAVID'S FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,007,205 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Creative Action find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Creative Action →
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 60 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