Minnesota · Nonprofit
NORTHERN CLAY CENTER
NORTHERN CLAY CENTER (Minnesota) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,191,793 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($1,423,800). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Northern Clay Center does
Mission
Northern Clay Center's mission is to advance the ceramic arts for artists, learners, and the community, through education, exhibitions, and artist services. Its goals are to create and promote high-quality, relevant, and participatory ceramic arts educational experiences; cultivate and challenge ceramic arts audiences through extraordinary exhibitions and programming; support ceramic artists in the expansion of their artistic and professional skills; embrace makers from diverse cultures and traditions in order to create a more inclusive clay community; and excel as a non-profit arts organization.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education: classes, workshops, and outreach programming for schools and community organizations offer educational opportunities for artists, students, teachers, and the general public. Served constituents and communities through in-person and remote opportunities.
$788,091 spentof which $11,922 as grants$737,408 earned by the program40% of program spendingSales gallery provides representation for 176 ceramic artists, offering another source of financial support for craftspeople.
$404,386 spent$280,000 earned by the program21% of program spendingArtist services include affordable studio space, access to specialized equipment and facilities, educational resources, professional development, exhibition and sales opportunities, individual grants, and a communication network.
$348,841 spentof which $115,557 as grants$157,827 earned by the program18% of program spending1) exhibitions promote public appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts through displays of regional, national, and international artists' work. Through virtual tours and decreased capacities for in-person viewing, ncc presented the installed work of exhibiting artists to the public in various ways. 2) the american pottery festival (apf) is an annual special event - a weekend of artist lectures and demonstrations, collector tours, and sale of pots - designed to expand and educate the local audience for national and regional potters and generate revenue for both ncc and the artists.
$418,148 spent$127,402 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,959,466.
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 $4.5M to $3.8M (−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: 2017 9% · 2018 8% · 2019 10% · 2020 7% · 2021 22% · 2022 10% · 2023 6% · 2024 9% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
21% of NORTHERN CLAY CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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 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
Kyle Rudy-Kohlhepp
Exec dir thr
Board chair
Mary K Baumann
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $75k → $408k.
2 of 21 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 NORTHERN CLAY CENTER’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
NORTHERN CLAY CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 82%; 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 36% · 2018 48% · 2019 88% · 2020 63% · 2021 80% · 2022 59% · 2023 82% — 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
50% of NORTHERN CLAY CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 76% 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
89% of NORTHERN CLAY CENTER's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27k 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
NORTHERN CLAY CENTER's funding base is broadening — from 7 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NORTHERN CLAY CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$100k
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 NORTHERN CLAY CENTER
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 Minnesota
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
95%
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 NORTHERN CLAY CENTER: 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 NORTHERN CLAY CENTER?
- NORTHERN CLAY CENTER (Minnesota) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,191,793 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($1,423,800). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTHERN CLAY CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $2,191,793 in grants to NORTHERN CLAY CENTER, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHERN CLAY CENTER?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,423,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHERN CLAY CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Northern Clay Center →
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 21 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