North Carolina · Nonprofit
DREAM CENTER ACADEMY
DREAM CENTER ACADEMY (North Carolina) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $975,243 to it, the largest being GASTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($524,727). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $903k
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $975k
- Net assets
- $420k
What Dream Center Academy does
Mission
The mission of Dream Center Academy is to empower students in the gaston county schools to own their education by developing the academic and social skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Dream Center Academy is an educational nonprofit organization that provides out-of-school programming to at risk teens residing in an economically disadvantaged region of gaston county. Dcas mission is to empower students to taek ownership of their education by developing the academic and social skills necessary to reach their full potential in school and beyond. Dca accomplishes this mission by providing an intensive 7 year program that prepares students to graduate college-career-ready. Our vision is to build generations of students who become college-career-ready graduates and productive community citizens.
$487,091 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $487,091.
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 2023 to 2024, from $176k to $420k (+138%).
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 44% · 2019 46% · 2020 62% · 2021 63% · 2022 70% · 2023 45% · 2024 48%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of DREAM CENTER ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Roxann Jimison
Executive director
Board chair
Marty Starnes
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $34k → $216k.
4 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 DREAM CENTER ACADEMY’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
DREAM CENTER ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
63% 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 DREAM CENTER ACADEMY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 100% · 2019 61% · 2020 63% · 2021 54% · 2022 76% · 2023 38% — 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
43% of DREAM CENTER ACADEMY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
60% of DREAM CENTER ACADEMY'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 $388k that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $587k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
DREAM CENTER ACADEMY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like DREAM CENTER ACADEMY
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 North Carolina
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
99%
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 DREAM CENTER ACADEMY: 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 DREAM CENTER ACADEMY?
- DREAM CENTER ACADEMY (North Carolina) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $975,243 to it, the largest being GASTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($524,727). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DREAM CENTER ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $975,243 in grants to DREAM CENTER ACADEMY, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DREAM CENTER ACADEMY?
- GASTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $524,727 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DREAM CENTER ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Dream Center Academy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 13 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