Ohio · Nonprofit
CULTURE WORKS
CULTURE WORKS (Ohio) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $412,884 to it, the largest being TR UA FIFTH THIRD FOUNDATION ($108,426). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $413k
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Culture Works does
Mission
Culture Works is the funding, advocacy, and service organization that passionately inspires, supports, and sustains arts and culture in the dayton region.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Campaign for the arts: Culture Works fulfills its united arts fund mission through the campaign for the arts cfta. Cfta is a program that takes the arts into the community and builds partnerships with individuals, corporations, and foundations. These artistic engagements drive fundraising that provides operating support through community arts grants to arts organizations through-out the miami valley and ensure that residents of all ages and backgrounds are given the opportunity to enjoy the rich diversity of arts that the dayton region has to offer.
$477,094 spentof which $222,074 as grants44% of program spendingArts awareness, advocacy, and programming: Culture Works promotes artistic events and programs facilitated by more than 300 arts and cultural organizations across an eight-county service area through community publications and regular communications with its stakeholders. The organization works with elected officials at the local and state levels to advocate for the arts and culture sector, coordinates and collects data for economic impact studies, connects educators with local arts education opportunities through its artsdeep program, and connects businesses with individual artists through wellness initiatives. In addition, Culture Works partners with the national endowment for the arts for creative placemaking projects.
$600,483 spentof which $382,773 as grants56% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,077,577.
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 $2.9M to $3.8M (+34%).
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 3% · 2019 7% · 2020 12% · 2021 37% · 2022 27% · 2023 24% · 2024 32% · 2025 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of CULTURE WORKS’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. 7 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
Stacey Lawson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $7k → $97k.
4 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.9M from 6 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Dayton Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CULTURE WORKS raised.
From the IRS filings of CULTURE 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
CULTURE WORKS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
29% 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 CULTURE WORKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 59% · 2019 51% · 2020 32% · 2021 33% · 2022 24% · 2023 50% — 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
90% of CULTURE WORKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
86% of CULTURE WORKS's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $122k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
CULTURE WORKS 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 CULTURE WORKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $682k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$682k
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 CULTURE 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Cw Events Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CULTURE 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 CULTURE WORKS?
- CULTURE WORKS (Ohio) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $412,884 to it, the largest being TR UA FIFTH THIRD FOUNDATION ($108,426). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CULTURE WORKS have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $412,884 in grants to CULTURE WORKS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CULTURE WORKS?
- TR UA FIFTH THIRD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $108,426 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CULTURE WORKS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 17 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