Ohio · Nonprofit
GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL
GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL (Ohio) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,072,872 to it, the largest being American Electric Power Foundation ($1,538,250). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $8.7M
What Greater Columbus Arts Council does
Mission
Mission: to champion and elevate the arts and cultural expression of greater columbus.vision: power of art realized. People engaged. City energized.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grants & community engagement - gcac supports nonprofit art organizations and professional artists that provide arts and cultural programming in columbus, oh including: arts exhibits, concerts, and programs for the visual and performing arts. Funding is provided by the city of columbus hotel/motel excise tax and admissions tax (from venues other than nationwide arena). Grants are awarded to local arts organizations for operating support, capital funding, projects, thrive, and cultural festivals. Funding also supports individual artists through funds for artist grants, artist project grants, fellowships, mural assistance, artist awards, artist residences and exchanges, artist workshops, navigator outreach, and the street performer programs.
$19,219,340 spentof which $18,435,607 as grants$14,750 earned by the program86% of program spendingColumbus arts festival - gcac organizes the annual columbus arts festival, which is held in early june. The festival provides opportunities for the community to view and purchase work of local and national artists, listen to continuous live music, and participate in art activities free of charge. The revenues of the festival represent corporate sponsorships, contributions, and booth and tent rentals, as well as revenues from concessions. Festival expenses are for operations, programming, equipment, materials, and administrative costs.
$1,257,816 spent$1,154,206 earned by the program6% of program spendingColumbus makes art campaign - art makes columbus/columbus makes art is a citywide marketing campaign in central ohio that connects people with the arts and arts experiences. The campaign includes marketing of artists and arts events via a searchable calendar, social media, and paid digital broadcast and print ads and promoting self-guided public art tours. The public can browse the columbus makes art website to find thousands of arts events each year, explore the artists that call central ohio home and find public art in neighborhoods across the city.
$725,273 spent3% of program spendingFilm columbusfilm columbus aims to grow the film industry in columbus and central ohio by creating jobs and providing significant economic impact for the area. Film columbus strives to build columbus as a top city for film education, exhibition, and production. Beginning in 2020, film columbus became a divison of gcac.art in public placesin 2025 gcac launched the greater columbus public art strategy, the first ever comprehensive public art plan for columbus and franklin county. It laid the groundwork for an art in public places program at gcac to provide resources to artists, businesses, neighborhoods and others who want to: create public art, conduct public engagement for community input on public art projects, develop new public art plans focused on both artists and neighborhood equity, directly commission public art and provide guidance and assistance for projects on public property that need to navigate city and county services and permits.community arts programs:junior achievementthe program is the world's larget organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneureship, and financial literacy through experiences, hands on programs. Junior…
$1,113,814 spentof which $35,000 as grants$8,167 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $22,316,243.
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 2021 to 2022, from $9.7M to $15M (+54%).
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 79% · 2018 81% · 2019 85% · 2020 90% · 2021 93% · 2022 92% · 2023 88% · 2024 92% · 2025 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Jim Negron
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $50k → $441k.
4 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $775k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Columbus Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL raised.
From the IRS filings of GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL’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
GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 92% · 2019 99% · 2020 74% · 2021 62% · 2022 95% · 2023 94% — 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
33% of GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside Ohio, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $114k 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
GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL has grown faster than half of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% 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 GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL: 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 GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL?
- GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL (Ohio) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,072,872 to it, the largest being American Electric Power Foundation ($1,538,250). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $2,072,872 in grants to GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL?
- American Electric Power Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,538,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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