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Tennessee · Nonprofit

DYNAMO STUDIOS

DYNAMO STUDIOS (Tennessee) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $864,040 to it, the largest being Robert F Stone Foundation AKA Bobby Stone Foundation ($463,500). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.4M
Funders on record
15
Grants received
$864k
Net assets
$0
10/15 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Dynamo Studios does

Mission

Dynamo Studios provides an environment and resources for students to harness their creative potential using the arts (studio production and music), education, and technology as a catalyst to promote cultural growth, community growth and real-world opportunities for participants at a free or reduced rate.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

On its FY2025 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.

The organization ceased conducting operations on september 5, 2025.

Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).

  1. Beginning in 2024, Dynamo Studios were awarded two different grants tennessee department of economic and community development grant: through the state of tennessee to support our programs that will provide workforce development and digital skills to the students we are serving in school and after school. Our programs directly teach and train students in digital skills and provide professional development and training for workforce development. Through this programming we will impact over 1000 students.

    $828,633 spent
    100% of program spending
  2. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $0 spent
    0% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $828,633.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($96k) Expenses 100 ($71k) Net assets 100 ($100k)2021 Revenue 170 ($162k) Expenses 215 ($153k) Net assets 109 ($109k)2022 Revenue 254 ($243k) Expenses 313 ($223k) Net assets 128 ($129k)2023 Revenue 583 ($557k) Expenses 415 ($296k) Net assets 389 ($390k)2024 Revenue 473 ($452k) Expenses 687 ($490k) Net assets 352 ($353k)2025 Revenue 1484 ($1.4M) Expenses 2485 ($1.8M) Net assets 0 ($0)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (1484)Expenses (2485)Net assets (0)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 2024 to 2025, from $353k to $0 (−100%).

$100k
$110k
$129k
$390k
$353k
$0
202020212022202320242025
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2023 54% · 2024 52% · 2025 82%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of DYNAMO STUDIOS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,377 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$24k
’20
$9k
’21
$19k
’22
$261k
’23
−$37k
’24
−$353k
’25
1.1
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

Kessler Cuffman

Executive director

Board chair

Rick Wood

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

2022202320242025
Listed89810
Joined·+1+0+4
No longer listed·012
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $25k → $172k.

5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 DYNAMO STUDIOS’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

DYNAMO STUDIOS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

27% 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 DYNAMO STUDIOS.

54%
largest funder
72%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 83% · 2021 66% · 2022 67% · 2023 58% — 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

75% of DYNAMO STUDIOS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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

DYNAMO STUDIOS draws 66% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 3 states in all.

NY
DE
TN

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

’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $136k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

DYNAMO STUDIOS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−25% · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)72% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like DYNAMO STUDIOS

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 Tennessee

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

47% of spending goes to programs.

Program 47%Management 52%Fundraising 1%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DYNAMO STUDIOS: 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 DYNAMO STUDIOS?
DYNAMO STUDIOS (Tennessee) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $864,040 to it, the largest being Robert F Stone Foundation AKA Bobby Stone Foundation ($463,500). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does DYNAMO STUDIOS have?
IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $864,040 in grants to DYNAMO STUDIOS, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of DYNAMO STUDIOS?
Robert F Stone Foundation AKA Bobby Stone Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $463,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like DYNAMO STUDIOS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Dynamo Studios →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 15 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