Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Ngoma Center for Dance
Ngoma Center for Dance (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,700 to it, the largest being LATINO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ($11,011). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $491k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $23k
- Net assets
- $274k
What Ngoma Center for Dance does
Mission
Ngoma Center for Dance N-Go-mah is a 501c3 whose mission is to cultivate equitable opportunities and creative career pathways through professional training essential performance and entrepreneurship development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The official school of Dissonance Dance Theatre DCs Only African-American managed and nationally-recognized contemporary ballet. Serving over 200 students annually since 2014 The Ngoma School is emerging as a Washington DC area dance-school destination for students interested in a professional concert dance career. Ngoma serves students as young as five years old to young adults who received a late start to their professional dance training. Dance classes workshops masterclasses and auditions are facilitated at Univ of Maryland College Park. FY2024 - In 2024 the Ngoma School served a diverse student population from across Washington DC Montgomery County MD and Prince Georges County MD. Making dance education accessible to all remains central to the schools mission with 75% of students receiving financial assistance through various scholarship programs and tuition reduction initiatives. Additionally 2024 Ngoma School alumni have been accepted to and begun their higher education journeys at distinguished institutions including Howard University and Virginia State University demonstrating the programs success in preparing students for both professional and academic advancement.
$199,328 spent$17,698 earned by the program71% of program spendingDDT is the Resident Ballet of Ngoma Center for Dance. Named One of the 11 small-but-mighty dance companies outside of LA and NYC by Dance Spirit Magazine Dissonance Dance Theatre is a Washington DC-based professional dance company founded in 2007 by Shawn Short. Since its inception Dissonance Dance Theatre has performed for local and national audiences on the east coast and midwest states. Evoking emotional experiences in the audiences we touch Dissonances cutting-edge repertoire features works that are socially and visually appealing to audiences while remaining true to its mission; challenging the audiences assumptions about the human experience through dance. FY2024 Ngoma provided hours of pro bono consultation to Black-led The Creative Space and Textures Dance Theater. Next Ngomas Dissonance Dance Theatre becomes a Resident Arts Partner with Atlas Performing Arts Center after 16 years of arts impact and engagement. Also Ngoma attended and adjudicated at the International Association of Blacks in Dance 35th annual conference in Memphis TN providing 60 youth scholarships and eight professional contracts to dancers. For a second year Ngoma continued to work with Joy of Motion…
$56,610 spent$7,493 earned by the program20% of program spendingSince 2020 Ngoma Center for Dances newest program Ngoma Film Works has been buzzing with new its latest productions. In partnerships with Dog Bark Media LLC a Black-Owned media company in Washington DC Ngoma Film Works initial projects have received selection in more than 10 film festivals - including American Dance Festivals Movies By Movers. FY202 - In 2024 Ngoma worked with LA-based SMV - a post-production house in Burbank - to remastered the $156K film to improve sound quality and subtle imperfections. After several months of meetings and diligent video editing work SMV provided a remastered f ilm ready for digital streaming. Company D is now available for pay-preview on Ngomas website.
$25,000 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $280,938.
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 2021 to 2022, from $199k to $523k (+162%).
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: 2018 46% · 2019 38% · 2020 50% · 2021 35% · 2022 60% · 2023 41% · 2024 19% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Ngoma Center for Dance’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 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
Shawn Short
CEO-Executive Director
Board chair
Dave Domzalski
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $2k → $40.
1 of 4 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 Ngoma Center for Dance’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
Ngoma Center for Dance leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
91% 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 Ngoma Center for Dance.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 99% · 2021 99% · 2022 99% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
Ngoma Center for Dance draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $189 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Ngoma Center for Dance runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Ngoma Center for Dance receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 Ngoma Center for Dance
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
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
33%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Ngoma Center for Dance: 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 Ngoma Center for Dance?
- Ngoma Center for Dance (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,700 to it, the largest being LATINO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ($11,011). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Ngoma Center for Dance have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $22,700 in grants to Ngoma Center for Dance, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Ngoma Center for Dance?
- LATINO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $11,011 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Ngoma Center for Dance 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 Ngoma Center for Dance →
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 4 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