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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

MASSCREATIVE INC

MASSCREATIVE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,814,892 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($1,681,500). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$223k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$2.8M
Net assets
$645k
10/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 79%
01What it does

What Masscreative Inc does

Mission

Masscreative advocates for a well-resourced and equitable creative sector essential to the economic and civic vibrancy of massachusetts. Working with its organizational and individual members, masscreative advances the public policy, grassroots advocacy learing, and to support the arts, humanities, sciences and creative economy sectors in massachusetts; to engage a network of arts and cultural organizations, businesses, creative entrepreneurs artists and sector supporters and building strategic alliances across sectors.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To support the arts, humanities, sciences and creative economy sectors in massachusetts; to engage a network of arts and cultural organizations, businesses, creative entrepreneurs artists and sector supporters and building strategic alliances accross sectors.

    $501,305 spent$7,600 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $501,305.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($191k) Expenses 100 ($318k) Net assets 100 ($78k)2018 Revenue 292 ($559k) Expenses 124 ($394k) Net assets 311 ($243k)2019 Revenue 129 ($247k) Expenses 159 ($507k) Net assets -23 ($-17630)2020 Revenue 196 ($375k) Expenses 100 ($319k) Net assets 49 ($38k)2021 Revenue 309 ($591k) Expenses 103 ($328k) Net assets 385 ($301k)2022 Revenue 498 ($953k) Expenses 132 ($419k) Net assets 1068 ($834k)2023 Revenue 521 ($996k) Expenses 117 ($372k) Net assets 1867 ($1.5M)2024 Revenue 66 ($126k) Expenses 164 ($521k) Net assets 1360 ($1.1M)2025 Revenue 116 ($223k) Expenses 201 ($640k) Net assets 826 ($645k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (116)Expenses (201)Net assets (826)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $866k to $1.5M (+71%).

$80k
$265k
$63k
$118k
$354k
$866k
$1.5M
$1.1M
$669k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2022 5% · 2023 10% · 2024 26% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of MASSCREATIVE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$127k
’17
$165k
’18
−$260k
’19
$56k
’20
$263k
’21
$533k
’22
$624k
’23
−$395k
’24
−$417k
’25
8.6
months of
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

Kara Elliot-Ortega

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed1619172023232320
Joined·+4+3+3+7+0+0+4
No longer listed·1504007
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $140k → $638k.

4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 MASSCREATIVE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 15 of 16 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

MASSCREATIVE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 60% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

27% 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 MASSCREATIVE INC.

60%
largest funder
92%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 53% · 2019 65% · 2020 49% · 2021 76% · 2022 58% · 2023 75% — 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 MASSCREATIVE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

99% of MASSCREATIVE INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.

MN
MA
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $713k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

MASSCREATIVE INC is better cushioned than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−187% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve8.6mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)2% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding MASSCREATIVE INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $195k on record.

State$195k
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$190k
  • (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$5k

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 MASSCREATIVE 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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 8%Fundraising 14%

Governance

19
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

56%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Masscreative Action Network Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MASSCREATIVE 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 MASSCREATIVE INC?
MASSCREATIVE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,814,892 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($1,681,500). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does MASSCREATIVE INC have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,814,892 in grants to MASSCREATIVE INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of MASSCREATIVE INC?
BARR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,681,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like MASSCREATIVE INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Masscreative →

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 16 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