Connecticut · Nonprofit
LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS (Connecticut) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,419,760 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($404,700). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $17M
What Lyme Academy of Fine Arts does
Mission
The mission of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is to teach the foundational skills of drawing, painting, and sculpture in the figurative tradition. By its commitment to training students in these skills and an engagement with contemporary discourse, the academy will empower a new generation of artists. Through its programs, the academy is committed to enriching the cultural life of the community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2021, with fresh leadership at its helm, the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts reopened its doors to students, and welcomed a new generation of success. Under the guidance of a Board of Trustees that has clarified and sharpened the Academys mission, Artistic Direction that is inspiring a new generation of students and a Sculpture program that is the realization of the original vision of the Academys founder, sculptor Elisabeth Gordon Chandler. Artistic directors, Jordan Sokol and Amaya Gurpide have generated interest in the programs of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts that has grown steadily over the last four years.Recent major gifts have provided support to the endowment of three faculty chair positions, significant capital projects, general operating needs, and have provided the Academy with stability and growth. Key new positions, including the Charlotte Colby Danly Sculpture Chair, Managing Director, and additional staff and faculty have also contributed to growth. The Academys rebirth is evident in the increasing number of students attending, which has met and exceeded the targets set in its multi-year strategic plan. Full-time enrollment has grown from 12 students in 2021-2022, to…
$1,867,871 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,867,871.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $17M to $19M (+16%).
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: 2021 11% · 2022 2% · 2023 3% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS’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. 2 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
Michael Duffy
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $2k → $238k.
5 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 21 of 22 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
LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
82% 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 LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 98% · 2019 101% · 2020 100% · 2021 94% · 2022 43% · 2023 21% — 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
20% of LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
70% of LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS'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 $422k that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $998k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS 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 LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS: 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 LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS?
- LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS (Connecticut) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,419,760 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($404,700). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $1,419,760 in grants to LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $404,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LYME ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Lyme Academy of Fine Arts →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 22 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