California · Nonprofit
LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION
LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,401,499 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,965,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation does
Mission
The Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation is a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization founded in 1980 by lula and erwin washington to provide a creative outlet for minority dance artists in south los angeles. The creative mission is to build a professional inner-city based modern dance company that tours world-wide with innovative dance works rooted in african american history, culture, and values. Our education mission is to create a school in the inner city where young people can learn the art of dance, launch careers in dance, and where dance is used to motivate, educate, inspire, challenge, and enrich young lives so they can grow to become successful, productive, and competitive adults.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The lula washington dance theatre (lwdt) the popular name for the Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation. It is composed of two broad elements. It is a dance school that serves mainly inner -city youth, but, adults as well. The school offers dance training in ballet, modern dance, tap, hip hop, african dance, jazz dance, caribbean dance, and other forms. As part of the school, lwdt hosts a youth dance. Ensemble, which gives concerts in the community, as well as at the lwdt facility. As part of the school, lwdt produces an annual youth dance recital; a summer dance intensive and concert; a fall dance concert outside in its parking lot for the dance all day festival; and a year end kwanzaa festival. Each of these focuses on the youth, but the adult dancers regularly make appearances as well. Lwdt is also an adult, professional modern dance company that gives performances in los angeles and across the us. Locally, the dance company is hired to perform at theaters and other venues. From time to time, the dance company will self-produce a concert or concerts at its studio theatre. Lula washington is the main choreographer for the company. Associate director tamica…
$793,052 spent$252,728 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $793,052.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $1.8M to $2.6M (+40%).
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: 2020 25% · 2021 14% · 2022 12% · 2023 19% · 2024 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
Lula Washington
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $6k → $52.
2 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION’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
LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 98%; 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 83% · 2018 98% · 2019 68% · 2020 98% · 2021 100% · 2022 78% · 2023 100% — 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
38% of LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION'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
LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $26k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $90k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$90k
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 LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION
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
99% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION: 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 LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION?
- LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,401,499 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,965,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $2,401,499 in grants to LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,965,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LULA WASHINGTON CONTEMPORARY DANCE FOUNDATION 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 Lula Washington Contemporary Dance →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 10 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