California · Nonprofit
Gualala Arts Inc
Gualala Arts Inc (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $472,842 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($202,050). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $997k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $473k
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Gualala Arts Inc does
Mission
Promote public interest and participation in the arts.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Art Festivals Art in the Redwoods Festival Since 1961, this signature four-day August celebration has drawn over 1,500 attendees annually. With more than 150 artists, 2030 vendors, 300+ fine art entries, and a full weekend of live music, culinary delights, and family-friendly activities, it remains a cornerstone of the coastal arts calendar. Highlights include the Hats Off Dinner and Champagne Preview. Wheels, Wine and Wears- Gualala Arts brought together the Auto Show, Fine Arts Fair and local wineries. Car lovers got to explore vintage classics, hot rods, customs, and rare contemporary vehicles at the Auto Show. Meanwhile, the Fine Arts Fair showcases nearly 50 artists offering photography, ceramics, jewelry, paintings, clothing, and morebeautifully displayed beneath the redwoods. Enjoy tastings from local wineries including Idles Cellars, Trione Winery, Wild Hog Vineyard, and Woodenhead Vintners, and discover artisan goods from gourmet jams to handblown glass. This event attracted over 1000 visitors for this one-day event. Festival of Trees Held annually on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, this festive event launches the holiday season on the Mendocino/Sonoma…
$234,538 spent34% of program spendingDolphin Gallery & Visitors Center Staffed primarily by volunteers, the Dolphin Gallery features fine art and crafts by Gualala Arts member artists from Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Monthly exhibits and ever-changing inventory make it a beloved destination for visitors seeking local art and community connection. Now located at the Seacliff Center in downtown Gallows for a constant steam of visitors and highlights Gualala as a arts destination for artists and the public. Educational Programs Gualala Arts fosters lifelong learning through: Annual K12 student art exhibit- Art in the Schools, features local Elementary Schools and High School student art, with between 5-7 Elementary Schools, 2 High Schools and hundreds of students participating. Gualala Arts Young Artist Scholarship (GAYAS) funded through volunteer programs, this scholarship funds arts scholarships for students to pursue their arts education at the college level. Open Clay Studio (5 days/week)
$213,841 spent31% of program spendingGlobal Harmony Series: Presented by Gualala Arts, this annual series showcases touring musicians and unique performances. Highlights from this year included Kitka and Men of Worth. This programming is hugely popular and brings acts from all over the world to the Mendonoma Coast. Whale & Jazz Festival The 2024 Whale & Jazz Festival featured a series of acclaimed performances, including a Dave Brubeck retrospective, An Evening of George Gershwin, and tributes to jazz greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk. Highlights included Bay Area Jazz Masters, with Tommy Kesecker, Benny Watson, Randy Vincent, Steve Webber, and Jimmy Hobson, and Bay Area Jazz Legends: Dick Conte & Randy Vincent in Concert. These extremely popular concerts attracting as many as 100 attendees per concert. Gualala Arts Interest Groups Gualala Arts includes nearly 30 different interest groups, some of the larger include: North Coast Artists Guild (NCAG): NCAG champions the local arts community through signature programs like the Studio Discovery Tour, which draws thousands of visitors and showcases nearly 50 artists. The Guild also presents the Gualala Salon and Salon des…
$146,881 spent21% of program spendingPerformance Arts SeriesChamber Music Series: The 2024 Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series was nothing short of extraordinary, bringing world-class talent and unforgettable performances to the Mendonoma coast. Audiences were treated to the brilliance of Klein String Competition winner Gaeun Kim, as well as stirring concerts by the Beo String Quartet, Neave Trio, and the dynamic duo Jolente De Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende. The season continued to dazzle with Kelley & Meade, The Hiraga, Wyrick, Merks Quintet, Eric Kritz & Friends, Gabrielle Despres, James Baik & Jung-Eun Kim, and the renowned Boston Trio. Each ensemble brought their own magic to the stage, making 2024 a banner year for chamber music at Gualala Arts.Gualala Arts Theater: Volunteer-led productions, this years production The Greatest Show! Musical Revue which sold out each of the six performances with 120 seats available per performance. Local Eyes celebrates the vibrant talent of Mendonoma-based pe performers and poets. This years lineup featured soulful sets by Bryn and Blue Souls, seasonal concerts from the Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers and CoastSing, and a high-energy Funkasaurus show. DJ Phil transformed Gualala Arts into…
$89,419 spent13% of program spendingOther Arts Programming includes:Weekly life drawing sessionsCommunity chorus- CoastSing this 20-person chorus meets weeklyGualala Arts offers a dynamic lecture series and hands-on workshops in a wide range of disciplines, including quilting, ceramics, painting, photography, and bookbinding. This years highlights included Margaret Seelies engaging class on indigo dyeing and a captivating talk by Meghan Walla-Murphy on Black Bears of Mendonoma and a presentation of Mendonoma Sightings where local author Jeanne Jackson displayed some of her favorite photographs of local flora and fauna that were sent to her in the past few years.
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $684,679.
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 2018 to 2019, from $2.3M to $2.5M (+11%).
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: 2023 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of Gualala Arts Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
David Susalla
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $500 → $79k.
6 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 Gualala Arts Inc’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
Gualala Arts Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
64% 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 Gualala Arts Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 71% · 2020 60% · 2021 50% · 2022 52% · 2023 41% — 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
67% of Gualala Arts Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
64% of Gualala Arts Inc'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 $171k that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside California, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $302k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
Gualala Arts Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Gualala Arts 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 Gualala Arts 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.
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 Gualala Arts Inc?
- Gualala Arts Inc (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $472,842 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($202,050). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Gualala Arts Inc have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $472,842 in grants to Gualala Arts Inc, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Gualala Arts Inc?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $202,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Gualala Arts Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Gualala Arts →
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 11 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