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Rhode Island · Nonprofit

DOWNCITY DESIGN

DOWNCITY DESIGN (Rhode Island) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,831,534 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF RHODE ISLAND INC ($473,679). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$817k
Funders on record
26
Grants received
$1.8M
Net assets
$2.4M
16/26 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 38%
01What it does

What Downcity Design does

Mission

Downcity Design offers free programs that help residents gain skills while strenghtening their communities, through the creation of service projects that harness the creative power of design.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Downcity Design provided free in-school, after school, and summer design education programs for over 250 providence county teens in 2024/2025. Our programs help students develop critical thinking, creative problem solving, and steam skills -- crucial skills for success in school and in life beyond -- while engaging in meaningful service work. This year, students designed and fabricated 9 new youth-designed, youth built service projects for community clients including providence planning, osamequin farm, sojourner house, southside community land trust, west broadway neighborhood association, saint martin de porres center, igliozzi recreation center, and the avenue concept.through a sucessful capital campaign effort,downity design successfully renovated their new community design center facility,which opened in spring 2024!

    $479,032 spent$34,795 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $479,032.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($397k) Expenses 100 ($325k) Net assets 100 ($229k)2018 Revenue 133 ($526k) Expenses 125 ($407k) Net assets 152 ($348k)2019 Revenue 143 ($566k) Expenses 151 ($490k) Net assets 185 ($424k)2020 Revenue 144 ($571k) Expenses 151 ($489k) Net assets 221 ($506k)2021 Revenue 210 ($835k) Expenses 145 ($469k) Net assets 381 ($872k)2022 Revenue 234 ($929k) Expenses 161 ($524k) Net assets 558 ($1.3M)2023 Revenue 266 ($1.1M) Expenses 140 ($453k) Net assets 822 ($1.9M)2024 Revenue 297 ($1.2M) Expenses 218 ($708k) Net assets 1028 ($2.4M)2025 Revenue 206 ($817k) Expenses 238 ($773k) Net assets 1048 ($2.4M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (206)Expenses (238)Net assets (1048)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $1.5M to $2.1M (+42%).

$234k
$354k
$431k
$785k
$1.1M
$1.5M
$2.1M
$2.6M
$2.5M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 20% · 2018 41% · 2019 46% · 2020 48% · 2021 40% · 2022 46% · 2023 40% · 2024 35% · 2025 62%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of DOWNCITY DESIGN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (83% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 6,387 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$73k
’17
$119k
’18
$76k
’19
$82k
’20
$366k
’21
$405k
’22
$605k
’23
$473k
’24
$44k
’25
11
months of
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

Adrienne Gagnon

Executive director

Board chair

Natalie Hogan

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1114119141412911
Joined·+7+2+2+6+2+3+2+2
No longer listed·45412550
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $63k → $359k.

7 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 DOWNCITY DESIGN’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

DOWNCITY DESIGN 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

45% 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 DOWNCITY DESIGN.

26%
largest funder
52%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 71% · 2019 100% · 2020 80% · 2021 39% · 2022 21% · 2023 21% — 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

88% of DOWNCITY DESIGN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

DOWNCITY DESIGN draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 6 states in all.

NY
MA
OH
PA
CT
RI

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
Rhode Island out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $743k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

DOWNCITY DESIGN runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,482 youth development nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · above the median
Months of reserve10.5mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,482 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding DOWNCITY DESIGN receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $570k on record.

Federal$570k
grants $570kcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$420k
  • Department of Labor$150k

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 DOWNCITY DESIGN

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 Rhode Island

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

62% of spending goes to programs.

Program 62%Management 28%Fundraising 10%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

93%

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 DOWNCITY DESIGN: 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.

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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 DOWNCITY DESIGN?
DOWNCITY DESIGN (Rhode Island) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,831,534 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF RHODE ISLAND INC ($473,679). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does DOWNCITY DESIGN have?
IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,831,534 in grants to DOWNCITY DESIGN, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of DOWNCITY DESIGN?
UNITED WAY OF RHODE ISLAND INC is the largest funder on record, with $473,679 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like DOWNCITY DESIGN find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 Downcity Design →

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 26 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