Rhode Island · Nonprofit
THE MARKS PROJECT INC
THE MARKS PROJECT INC (Rhode Island) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,044 to it, the largest being THE CENTER FOR CRAFT CREATIVITY & DESIGN INC ($7,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $72k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $7k
- Net assets
- $15k
What The Marks Project Inc does
Mission
Mission: To create and maintain a searchable online database of signatures, marks, work images and biographical information for American mid-20th- and 21st-century studio potters, ceramic artists and artists using the medium of clay working from 1945 onward.Vision: To provide a primary research platform to assist scholars, museum specialists, collectors and creators in the identification and understanding of American studio potters, ceramic artists and artists working in the medium of clay.THE MARKS PROJECT (TMP) IS AN EDUCATIONAL NOT-FOR-PROFIT THAT DOCUMENTS THE WORK, MARKS, AND HISTORIES POST-WAR (1945 ONWARD) OF AMERICAN POTTERS, SCULPTORS AND CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS WHO USE THE MEDIUM OF CLAY (THE MAKERS). ALL IS MADE SEARCHABLE AND FREELY AVAILABLE TO RESEARCHERS, MUSEUM SPECIALISTS AND THE PUBLIC WORLDWIDE VIA WWW.THEMARKSPROJECT.ORG. IN ITS 8TH FULL YEAR ONLINE, THE MARKS PROJECT WEBSITE DOCUMENTS EACH ARTIST BY A UNIQUE WEB-PAGE THAT IS INDEXED THROUGH THE WEBSITE. ARTIST PAGES MAY
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
In 2020, we undertook a website redesign to improve processing time necessitated by significant increases in user page load times and projected additional future website traffic. During this redesign problems arose and, by early 2022, we hired a new designer who was able to move the project forward with beta testing beginning in the summer of 2023. The new website will update the appearance of the web pages and will refine search functions to improve the user experience on all digital devices. The first phase of the new website is projected to launch in the fall of 2024. During 2023, we expanded our board of directors and now have 10 members with expertise in technology, fundraising, website marketing & publicity, promoting ethnic diversity in the arts, and outreach to regional museums and universities. Combined with the advisory board established in 2022, we now have a much broader reach and enchanced expertise for promoting our programs in the greater ceramics world. We continue to promote our website tools via participation in the annual national council on education for the ceramic arts (nceca) conference. About 5,000 artists, designers, educators and scholars attended this…
$66,467 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $66,467.
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 2018 to 2019, from $29k to $6k (−81%).
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.
100% of THE MARKS PROJECT INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $7k → $27.
1 of 2 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 THE MARKS PROJECT INC’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
THE MARKS PROJECT INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 THE MARKS PROJECT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2022 100% · 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
THE MARKS PROJECT INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 1 state in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44 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
THE MARKS PROJECT INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like THE MARKS PROJECT 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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
35%
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 THE MARKS PROJECT 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 THE MARKS PROJECT INC?
- THE MARKS PROJECT INC (Rhode Island) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,044 to it, the largest being THE CENTER FOR CRAFT CREATIVITY & DESIGN INC ($7,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE MARKS PROJECT INC have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $7,044 in grants to THE MARKS PROJECT INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MARKS PROJECT INC?
- THE CENTER FOR CRAFT CREATIVITY & DESIGN INC is the largest funder on record, with $7,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MARKS PROJECT INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 Marks Project →
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 2 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