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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

Essex Art Center Inc

Essex Art Center Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,852,274 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($289,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$891k
Funders on record
37
Grants received
$1.9M
Net assets
$1.0M
24/37 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 58%
01What it does

What Essex Art Center Inc does

Mission

Essex Art Center is a community-based creative hub in Lawrence, Massachusetts, using art as a catalyst to bring people together, spark conversations that matter, and build community.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. We believe in the power of art to change not just the way we see the world, but the way we live. Essex Art Center sees everyone as an artist, and we help artists and art lovers connect with their creativity. Each year, the Center reaches 10,000 individuals. Our arts education programs serve artists of all ages. We offer diverse studio courses, including ceramics, drawing, digital art, painting, animation, Risograph printing, and stained glass. We make learning accessible to everyone by providing affordable studio classes and workshops with special financial assistance to Lawrence residents, including 75% off for youth 18 years or younger and 30% off for adults. In addition, we hold public art and design entrepreneurship programs for teens and a work-mentorship program for high school and college students. Participants in our public art and design programs receive stipends for their work, as do students in our work-mentorship program. Essex Art Center's exhibition program sees art as a connector in our community and a platform for communication about issues that matter. Our galleries serve as a source of inspiration for our students and a teaching tool for our teachers. We are…

    $715,646 spentof which $59,364 as grants$229,035 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $715,646.

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 ($465k) Expenses 100 ($502k) Net assets 100 ($487k)2018 Revenue 100 ($465k) Expenses 101 ($509k) Net assets 94 ($458k)2019 Revenue 95 ($442k) Expenses 100 ($502k) Net assets 84 ($408k)2021 Revenue 116 ($539k) Expenses 88 ($443k) Net assets 125 ($607k)2022 Revenue 168 ($782k) Expenses 102 ($512k) Net assets 170 ($827k)2023 Revenue 121 ($564k) Expenses 123 ($616k) Net assets 164 ($800k)2024 Revenue 154 ($715k) Expenses 150 ($756k) Net assets 211 ($1.0M)2025 Revenue 192 ($891k) Expenses 187 ($940k) Net assets 206 ($1.0M)
'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (192)Expenses (187)Net assets (206)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 2021 to 2022, from $621k to $860k (+39%).

$502k
$472k
$422k
$621k
$860k
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.2M
'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
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
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 8% · 2022 2% · 2023 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

70% of Essex Art Center Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$38k
’17
−$44k
’18
−$59k
’19
$96k
’21
$269k
’22
−$52k
’23
−$41k
’24
−$48k
’25
2.2
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

Monica Manoski

Executive Director

Board chair

Anne Thiam

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1515121210121112
Joined·+1+5·+5+4+1+2
No longer listed·18·7221
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $84k → $329k.

5 of 37 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 Essex Art Center Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 funders by total. 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

Essex Art Center Inc 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

41% 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 Essex Art Center Inc.

16%
largest funder
40%
top three
~12
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 17% · 2019 21% · 2020 17% · 2021 25% · 2022 41% · 2023 46% — 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

50% of Essex Art Center Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

98% of Essex Art Center Inc's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.

MA
CT
TX

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $643k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Essex Art Center Inc has grown faster than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−5% · below the median
Months of reserve2.2mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding Essex Art Center Inc receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $154k on record.

State$154k
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$154k

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 Essex Art Center Inc

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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 18%Fundraising 6%

Governance

11
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Essex Art Center Inc: 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 Essex Art Center Inc?
Essex Art Center Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,852,274 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($289,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Essex Art Center Inc have?
IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $1,852,274 in grants to Essex Art Center Inc, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Essex Art Center Inc?
Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $289,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Essex Art Center Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Essex Art Center →

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 37 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing