Connecticut · Nonprofit
REAL ART WAYS INC
REAL ART WAYS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,344,075 to it, the largest being HARTFORD FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC GIVING ($898,440). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.8M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $4.3M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What Real Art Ways Inc does
Mission
Real art ways is an alternative multidisciplinary arts organization that presents and supports contemporary artists and their work, facilitates the creation of new work, and creatively engages, builds, and informs audiences and communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Film: our cinema program, open seven nights a week, includes first-run independent films from the u.s. And around the world. Our cinema attracts on average 34,000 viewers per year. We use film to connect people with each other. For example, through our science on screen program, we couple film with live presentations to introduce audiences to accomplished scientists who live and work in our region.
$392,343 spent$190,713 earned by the program28% of program spendingVisual arts: a commitment to innovation and community informs our visual arts program. We provide a space for established and emerging artists to experiment and exhibit work. From large exhibitions to smaller solo shows, totaling 12 to 15 per year, excellence and innovation are central to our efforts.
$283,569 spent$3,952 earned by the program20% of program spendingEducation: our education programs introduce students to new ideas, and provide young people with hands-on opportunities for creativity.education programs include: film field trips: more than 2,000 students per year visit real art ways to watch superb films, including documentaries on the civil rights movement, with an emphasis on how young people have made an impact in our society. Students participate in a discussion about youth leadership and involvement. Park art, our summer arts program, provides free-of-charge art-making workshops, led by practicing artists, for children who live in our working class parkville neighborhood. Real apprentices employs an area high school student in paid positions. They become valued staff members, and gain their first experience working in a professional environment. Eye on video: fifteen area high school students, each paid a weekly stipend, learn how to make film and video projects in an intensive, summer-long program. With exhibitions, films, public art projects, concerts, performances, readings, education programs, and a welcoming space where people gather before and after events, real art ways is a nexus for people of widely varying…
$245,101 spent17% of program spendingLive arts: real art ways presents vibrant live arts programming that includes concerts, performances, readings and other events. We offer 25 concerts per year by international and local innovators, ranging from innovative improvisational music to classically-based contemporary music to popular international forms. We partner with other performing arts organizations, for example the hartford symphony and the hartford jazz society.
$495,085 spent$113,495 earned by the program35% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,416,098.
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 2024 to 2025, from $6.1M to $10M (+65%).
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 8% · 2018 9% · 2019 12% · 2020 20% · 2021 40% · 2022 25% · 2023 7% · 2024 10% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of REAL ART WAYS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
John A Wilkins
Executive director
Board chair
Yedalis Ruiz Phd Med
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $340k → $373k.
12 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 REAL ART WAYS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
REAL ART WAYS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
46% 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 REAL ART WAYS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 31% · 2019 38% · 2020 25% · 2021 19% · 2022 21% · 2023 26% — 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.
How long its funders stay
61% of REAL ART WAYS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
63% of REAL ART WAYS INC's grant income comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
REAL ART WAYS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding REAL ART WAYS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$906k
- National Endowment for the Arts$150k
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 REAL ART WAYS 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- 56 Arbor Street LLC · partnership
- 56 Arbor Street Mm LLC · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for REAL ART WAYS 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.
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 REAL ART WAYS INC?
- REAL ART WAYS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,344,075 to it, the largest being HARTFORD FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC GIVING ($898,440). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does REAL ART WAYS INC have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $4,344,075 in grants to REAL ART WAYS INC, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REAL ART WAYS INC?
- HARTFORD FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC GIVING is the largest funder on record, with $898,440 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REAL ART WAYS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Real Art Ways →
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 55 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