Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
PROJECT CREATE
PROJECT CREATE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,734,610 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,404,500). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $3.1M
What Project Create does
Mission
Project Create provides opportunities for creative youth development through accessible, multidisciplinary arts education to empower young people and amplify their voices.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Studio program: the Project Create arts center is full of art supplies and equipment, computers with creative design software, state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, and experienced teaching artists and art therapists. Multidisciplinary studio classes in visual, performing and digital media arts are provided daily, year-round in three semesters. During open studio sessions, experienced arts educators lead participants in an accepting and creative artistic environment. All classes are free.
$548,450 spentof which $2,863 as grants47% of program spendingCommunity partnership program: Project Create provides multidisciplinary arts education classes in partnership with community-based organizations that provide services to children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness and poverty. Program offerings, designed with a therapeutic and trauma-informed approach, include weekly classes, arts enrichment field trips, and performance and exhibition opportunities for kids of all ages. Ourcollaborations combat barriers to arts education accessibility.
$261,122 spent$210,632 earned by the program22% of program spendingArt therapy program: heart space, Project Creates art therapy program, is delivered by registered art therapists to provide mental health and social-emotional support through small group sessions. Programs, offered to children and families, focus on how to use art techniques to increase emotional wellness, decrease anxiety, and build resilience while connecting to others. Sessions include visual art therapy, music therapy and dance therapy. All programs are free for dc families.
$120,900 spent10% of program spendingProject Create provides opportunities for creative youth development through accessible, multidisciplinary arts education to empower young people and amplify their voices. Project Create students participate in free out-of-school-time art classes and art therapy groups, both at our own arts center in anacostia, as well as at multiple community partner sites in underserved dc neighborhoods. Project Create serves over 2,000 dc children, youth and their family members every year.
$233,646 spent20% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,164,118.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.1M to $3.8M (+76%).
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 18% · 2019 63% · 2020 36% · 2021 44% · 2022 55% · 2023 34% · 2024 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of PROJECT CREATE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Christie Walser
Executive director
Board chair
Gizachew Andargeh
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $272k → $930k.
8 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 PROJECT CREATE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
PROJECT CREATE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 56%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
64% 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 PROJECT CREATE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 49% · 2019 70% · 2020 65% · 2021 27% · 2022 12% · 2023 54% — 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
35% of PROJECT CREATE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
56% of PROJECT CREATE'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 $1.7M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
PROJECT CREATE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,928 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding PROJECT CREATE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $110k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$110k
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 PROJECT CREATE
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 PROJECT CREATE: 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 PROJECT CREATE?
- PROJECT CREATE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,734,610 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,404,500). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PROJECT CREATE have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $3,734,610 in grants to PROJECT CREATE, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROJECT CREATE?
- GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,404,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROJECT CREATE 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 Project Create →
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 49 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