South Carolina · Nonprofit
ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS
ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS (South Carolina) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $213,136 to it, the largest being COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC ($35,026). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $213k
- Net assets
- $178k
What Engaging Creative Minds does
Mission
The mission of Engaging Creative Minds is to inspire the creative and innovative potential of all students to achieve academically and become imaginative, adaptable, and productive adults resulting in stronger communities and an increasingly competitive south carolina workforce.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
In-school engaged learning experiences (eles):Engaging Creative Minds provides training and opportunities for artists and cultural organizations to collaborate and integrate the arts into the existing k-8th grade curriculum during the school day.the goal is to close the opportunity gap for all students which ultimately closes the achievement gap. Eles engage and motivate students thus seeing improved behavior, increased attendance in school, and more engaged students. Teachers become more skilled and confident at using the arts as both a tool and an appreciation for the arts.
$476,488 spent$497,700 earned by the program12% of program spendingSummer steam institute:designed for creative and energetic students in grades k-8 who want to spend their summer engaged in six weeks of unique learning experiences that foster creativity to solve real-world challenges alongside local artists, cultural organizations, and professionals in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Summer steam institute's two main objectives are to prevent summer learning loss and provide professional development for local certified teachers. In addition to the k-8 arts integration steam programs, ecm also provides a high school program for 9-12th grade students in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills while they are attending six weeks of summer steam institute serving as junior counselors.
$3,375,270 spent$3,669,330 earned by the program84% of program spendingYescarolina entrepreneurship:designed for students in grades grades 6-12, yescarolina provides certification for teachers to teach entrepreneurship. This curriculum, created by teachers for teachers, is a course thatsupports students who are at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey and prepares them to compete in yescarolina's annual state business plan competition. The experiential curriculum includes hands-on activities and lesson plans that motivate and engage the learner. It is a curriculum designed to strategically give the learner the necessary building blocks to successfully complete a step-by-step business plan for in-class and state business plan competition.
$167,089 spent$7,044 earned by the program4% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$5,063 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,023,910.
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 2022 to 2023, from $1.4M to $341k (−75%).
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 52% · 2018 0% · 2021 7% · 2022 63% · 2023 55% · 2024 83%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
8% of ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Robin Berlinsky
Executive director
Board chair
John Mistretta
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $15k → $12k.
4 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS’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
ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
50% 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 ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 38% · 2019 53% · 2020 28% · 2021 65% · 2022 54% · 2023 78% — 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
36% of ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside South Carolina, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56k 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
ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $213k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $36k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$36k
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 ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS
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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS: 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 ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS?
- ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS (South Carolina) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $213,136 to it, the largest being COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC ($35,026). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $213,136 in grants to ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS?
- COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC is the largest funder on record, with $35,026 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ENGAGING CREATIVE MINDS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South 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 Engaging Creative Minds →
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 18 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