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Alabama · Nonprofit

STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC

STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC (Alabama) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $840,778 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER BIRMINGHAM ($181,640). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$506k
Funders on record
46
Grants received
$841k
Net assets
$2.3M
28/46 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 24%
01What it does

What Studio by the Tracks Inc does

Mission

Studio by the tracks is a community arts studio serving artists on the autism spectrum. The organization provides opportunities for social connection and creative expression in a supportive, inclusive environment with all materials and instruction offered at no costs to the studio artists.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Studio by the tracks was formed to provide free art classes to emotionally conflicted children and adults with autism spectrum disorder or other mental illnesses. Studio by the tracks maintains a focused, energized atmosphere that provides students a safe haven in which to create. Currently the studio is serving approximately 80 individuals.

    $230,415 spent$78,523 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $230,415.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($307k) Expenses 100 ($273k) Net assets 100 ($549k)2018 Revenue 97 ($298k) Expenses 109 ($297k) Net assets 100 ($547k)2019 Revenue 103 ($315k) Expenses 118 ($322k) Net assets 99 ($541k)2020 Revenue 118 ($364k) Expenses 117 ($320k) Net assets 107 ($587k)2021 Revenue 126 ($386k) Expenses 139 ($378k) Net assets 111 ($611k)2022 Revenue 145 ($444k) Expenses 158 ($430k) Net assets 113 ($622k)2023 Revenue 751 ($2.3M) Expenses 163 ($445k) Net assets 421 ($2.3M)2024 Revenue 165 ($506k) Expenses 173 ($472k) Net assets 428 ($2.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (165)Expenses (173)Net assets (428)Peer revenue range

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 $638k to $2.3M (+267%).

$549k
$547k
$546k
$600k
$667k
$638k
$2.3M
$2.4M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

51% of STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$35k
’17
$2k
’18
−$6k
’19
$44k
’20
$9k
’21
$13k
’22
$1.9M
’23
$34k
’24
55
months of
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

Merrilee Challiss

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1718131115161415
Joined·+1+2+1+4+4+3+4
No longer listed·0730353
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $59k → $184k.

6 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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

STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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

48% 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 STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC.

22%
largest funder
39%
top three
~12
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 44% · 2019 27% · 2020 27% · 2021 25% · 2022 28% · 2023 25% — 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

39% of STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

85% of STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC's grant income comes from Alabama funders.

IL
CA
CO
MD
DE
AL
GA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Alabama out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $353k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin7% · above the median
Months of reserve55.0mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)7% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like STUDIO BY THE TRACKS 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 Alabama

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

49% of spending goes to programs.

Program 49%Management 30%Fundraising 21%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

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 STUDIO BY THE TRACKS 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.

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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 STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC?
STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC (Alabama) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $840,778 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER BIRMINGHAM ($181,640). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC have?
IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $840,778 in grants to STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC?
THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER BIRMINGHAM is the largest funder on record, with $181,640 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like STUDIO BY THE TRACKS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. 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 Studio by the Tracks →

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 46 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