Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,729,418 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,707,200). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.5M
- Funders on record
- 68
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What Life Pieces to Masterpieces does
Mission
Life Pieces to Masterpieces (lptm) is dedicated to the creative, academic, social-emotional, physical, and citizenship development of black boys and young men living in washington d.c.'s underserved 7th and 8th wards. Founded in 1996, lptm provides a 'home away from home'
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Lptm's afterschool program, the arts and education mentoring program (aemp), engages eighty boys and young men ages 3-13 (elementary and middle school-aged youth participants), and 5-7 young men ages 14-18 (high-school-aged "junior mentors"), in an arts-based process that guides them to channel their life experiences through acrylic and fabric stitched collage paintings, original poetry, prose, oratory, movement, and music. Each colorful, sewn, acrylic-on-canvas collage illustrates a shared story and reflects their courage to create their own destiny - transforming their life pieces into masterpieces. Conducted five days a week from 3:00 - 7:00 pm, the program also provides rigorous homework assistance, tutoring, literacy training, and math skills development assisted by student volunteers from local universities. The result is documented evidence of improvements in mental health, academic performance, self-awareness, positive male relationships, and civic and social ability - which in turn help our boys and young men to believe in their ability to positively impact their own lives, their community and ultimately the world they live in.
$1,159,471 spent54% of program spendingLptm's summer program, connecting communities across the globe, engages ninety boys and young men ages 3-13 (elementary and middle school-aged youth participants), and ten young men ages 14-18 (high-school-aged "junior mentors"), daily in a six-week program from july through early august, 8:00am-4:00pm. The program focuses on the study of a new foreign country each summer and incorporates three core strategies: 1) in-depth math and literacy tutoring designed to prevent summer learning loss; 2) promoting creative self-expression through the study of various art forms; and 3) developing global citizenship by discovering and exploring the cultural similarities and differences between our community in dc and foreign nations. Connecting communities across the globe builds on lptm's school-year focus of learning and growth in a safe, loving, and supportive environment; capitalizes upon the unique international opportunities available in washington, dc; and reminds our youth that they are global citizens.
$462,213 spent22% of program spendingSaturday academy (sa) provides between ten and fifteen high school students, ages 14-18, with academic support, college and career readiness training, black male development, leadership knowledge and skills, financial literacy, opportunities for creative self-expression, and public speaking practice to prepare them for post-secondary success. They also train for and prepare to serve as "junior mentors," supporting their younger peers in lptm's afterschool and summer classrooms. Over nine months, students meet three saturdays per month from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm for 90 minutes of academic tutoring with college and professional mentors, followed by afternoon workshops critical to personal and professional success. Over the past decade, 100% of sa participants have graduated from high school and entered college or other post-secondary training.
$175,994 spent8% of program spendingColor me community workshops advance our strategy for dismantling structural racism and other barriers to equity. Informed by lptm's nearly 30 years of experience in human development and co-led by lptm graduates, the highly interactive workshops provide a safe, non-judgmental environment for people of all backgrounds and identities to explore the implications of race, gender, sexual orientation, cultural background and identity, and how we see ourselves, each other, and the world. At the end of the workshop, participants collaborate to create artwork in the life pieces art style, communicating an action they will take to inspire positive change and a vision of shared humanity in their own lives and the world. Color me community has developed from a program into a life pieces enterprise whose clients include the u.s. State department, national and local nonprofit organizations, and local government agencies. Lptm's color me community workshops have reached over 1,000 professionals including artists, educators, politicians, and community leaders from over 55 countries. Art by life pieces - "creating art . . . Changing lives" - Life Pieces to Masterpieces takes its name from the…
$347,248 spent$59,529 earned by the program16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,144,926.
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 2024 to 2025, from $3.8M to $8.0M (+112%).
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 17% · 2018 3% · 2020 10% · 2021 18% · 2022 19% · 2023 25% · 2024 17% · 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Mary Brown
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $344k → $1.2M.
10 of 68 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 80% 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 LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 68 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
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
84% 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 LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 41% · 2019 73% · 2020 53% · 2021 47% · 2022 14% · 2023 36% — 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
34% of LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
80% of LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES'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 $2.9M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 17 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES runs a healthier operating margin 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
Organizations like LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES: 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 LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES?
- LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,729,418 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($9,707,200). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES have?
- IRS filings report 68 organizations giving $14,729,418 in grants to LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $9,707,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Life Pieces to Masterpieces →
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 68 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