California · Nonprofit
INK PEOPLE INC
INK PEOPLE INC (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,583,150 to it, the largest being HUMBOLDT AREA FOUNDATION ($882,130). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Ink People Inc does
Mission
Since 1979, the ink people is a community based arts and cultural arts agency with an administrative hub in eureka and servicing the greater north coast region. The ink people changes lives by connecting the community with resources for cultural development. We encourage people to exercise their humanity, build civic discourse, and engage their creative potential. We are organized on community access principles and the belief that art, in all its forms, is essential to the human spirit and well being.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The dreammaker program is the largest program of the ink people, where the ink people serves as fiscal sponsor for arts and culture projects that benefit the north coast region and beyond. These projects often center leadership from historically under-resourced peoples, address unique community needs, establish placemaking/placekeeping practices, and/or are sources of innovation. Dreammaker projects continued to grow in number and in capacity over the 24/25 fiscal year. Ink people offered another series of professional development workshops in grant writing and program planning and created opportunities for dreammaker leaders to connect to one another through mixers. We continued the dreammaker representative on the ink people board of directors. We enacted our second annual report for dreammaker projects and are starting to track data for the projects. We hired a marketing director who is supporting dreammakers marketing their activities. Ink people staff met with dreammaker leaders on a daily basis, offering critical one on one support.
$1,680,726 spentof which $2,980 as grants$1,028,184 earned by the program77% of program spendingIn 2024/2025, the ink people supported community and place by cultivating partnerships in the eureka cultural arts district and the humboldt creative alliance while also expanding its efforts to build relationships between artists, culture keepers, arts/culture organizations, and local governments. The ink people implemented the speaking soulatluk program, and brought wiyot language into the public space through signs on buses (this project has continued into the next fiscal year). The ink people served as the convener for the eureka cultural arts district (ecad) during this period, and the ecad embarked on grantmaking for projects in the district. The ink people also facilitated the drafting of governance documents for the ecad. Additionally, the ink people continued to be a core member of the humboldt creative alliance, working to secure funding from humboldt county's transient occupancy tax to be regranted to arts and culture endeavors in the county. The ink people managed a granting process and distributed funds to projects that promoted art, culture, and tourism with a focus on outdoor events. The ink people continues to be the local arts partner for the city of eureka,…
$417,964 spentof which $271,337 as grants$236,514 earned by the program19% of program spendingThe ink people continued to support ongoing opportunities to benefit youth through the media arts resource zone (marz) program and the jumpstarts program. Marz youth mentors offered free year-round programming for teens and transition age youth, ages 12-26. This programming offered youth a safe and supportive environment while facilitating career path learning opportunities in the digital and recording arts with career and technical certified youth mentors. The jumpstarts program offered similar year-round programming as the marz programming in juvenile hall, serving at-risk youth who are engaged in the criminal justice system. Additionally, the ink people offered additional workshops and support for queer youth.
$81,896 spent$31,724 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,180,586.
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 2023 to 2024, from $988k to $2.1M (+108%).
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 9% · 2018 16% · 2019 6% · 2020 7% · 2021 15% · 2022 10% · 2023 8% · 2024 11% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of INK PEOPLE INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Leslie Castellano
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $81k → $200k.
6 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% 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 INK PEOPLE 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
INK PEOPLE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
88% 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 INK PEOPLE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 88% · 2019 99% · 2020 67% · 2021 48% · 2022 70% · 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
63% of INK PEOPLE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
66% of INK PEOPLE 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 $532k that is directly attributable, 95% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M 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
INK PEOPLE INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding INK PEOPLE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $150k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$150k
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 INK PEOPLE 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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 INK PEOPLE 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 INK PEOPLE INC?
- INK PEOPLE INC (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,583,150 to it, the largest being HUMBOLDT AREA FOUNDATION ($882,130). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does INK PEOPLE INC have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $1,583,150 in grants to INK PEOPLE INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INK PEOPLE INC?
- HUMBOLDT AREA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $882,130 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INK PEOPLE 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.
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 26 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