Maryland · Nonprofit
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS (Maryland) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $715,520 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $716k
- Net assets
- $822k
What National Council for the Traditional Arts does
Mission
The ncta is dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the united states. Its programs celebrate and honor those deeply-rooted cultural expressions - music, dance, crafts, stories, rituals, foodways and other (continued on schedule o)practices that are passed on through time in families and communities, and in tribal, ethnic, regional and occupational groups.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Services to nea's folk & traditional arts program: for 39 years, the ncta has worked with the nea's folk and traditional arts program to coordinate and manage the events/activities of the annual nea national heritage fellowships, the highest federal honor for folk and traditional artists.
$1,006,575 spent47% of program spendingFolk and traditional arts-focused public programs (national scope of activities): founded in 1933, the ncta is the nation's oldest folk arts organization. A producer of a broad range of public programs, most of them free, the ncta stresses excellence and authenticity in bringing traditional artists representing the nation's diverse cultural communities to the public. Programs include: the traveling national folk festival, the nation's oldest and longest-running multicultural celebration of traditional arts, tours, concerts, workshops, demonstrations, cross-cultural exchanges, radio and television programs, exhibitions, school programs, residencies, recordings, among others. Ncta works to build sustainable events with lasting cultural, social and economic impact in communities around the nation.
$771,828 spent36% of program spendingNational park service work: for 53 years, the ncta has had a cooperative agreement with the national park service to assist parks across the country with the research, planning, presentation and documentation of cultural heritage programs, exhibits and other special projects, and to help local nonprofit groups organize cultural events in national parks. In 2024, the ncta worked with nine parks in locations across the country.
$323,051 spent15% of program spendingArchive preservation: the ncta maintains an archive of original audio recordings of traditional music dating from the 1930s, with extensive materials from the 1960s forward. A multiyear project to preserve, copy and digitize the entire collection is underway. Portions of the ncta collection that have already been preserved and digitized, (over 7,000 hours to date), are now permanently housed at the american folklife center of the library of congress. Expenses include staff time, consultant fees, and costs associated with maintaining the archive and projects digitizing recordings from festivals and other public programs.
$18,197 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,119,651.
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 2019 to 2020, from $1.1M to $1.6M (+50%).
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 43% · 2018 58% · 2019 62% · 2020 45% · 2021 76% · 2022 57% · 2023 56% · 2024 59%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS’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. 4 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
Blaine Waide
Executive director
Board chair
George Holt
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $150k → $8k.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 74% 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 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS’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
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
74% 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 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2021 99% · 2022 67% · 2023 88% — 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.
Where its funders are
74% of NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL 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 $188k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $528k 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
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS's revenue grew 19% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.1M on record — $8.2M federal, $856k state.
- National Endowment for the Arts$6.1M
- Department of the Interior$2.1M
- Grant$856k
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 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL 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 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS?
- NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS (Maryland) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $715,520 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $715,520 in grants to NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE TRADITIONAL ARTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 7 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