Virginia · Nonprofit
VENTURE CENTRAL INC
VENTURE CENTRAL INC (Virginia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $758,321 to it, the largest being CHARLOTTESVILLE AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($335,321). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $611k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $758k
- Net assets
- $320k
What Venture Central Inc does
Mission
Venture Central's mission is to serve and strengthen the Central Virginia entrepreneurial community by building and bridging connections, programs, funding, and spaces. We collaborate with regional entrepreneurs and business support partners for the advancement of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Central Virginia.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Venture Central is host to the 434 Accelerator program - an early stage innovation commercialization program that provides startup companies with space, programming, interns, mentorship, connection to resources, individualized coaching and community. The program is Central Virginia centric with cohort companies primarily coming from the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
$256,513 spent$313,000 earned by the program51% of program spendingVenture Central hosts the Venture Central Food and Beverage consumer packaged goods (CPG) project. The Food & Beverage Business Accelerator is an initiative to help food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers scale. A 2025 planning grant from GO Virginia Region 9 produced a 46-page report that assessed the regional ecosystem, validated market demand, benchmarked successful models, and designed an implementation-ready framework. The report presented data-driven findings that recommended the establishment of a Food & Beverage CPG Business Accelerator in Region 9.
$99,271 spent$95,879 earned by the program20% of program spendingVenture Central convened stakeholders and offered advisory support to projects, programs, and ESOs that support the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. It facilitated a regional CEO forum consisting of growth-stage CEOs and convened industry and entrepreneurship groups to support education, connection, and coordination - designed to advance a more collaborative and supportive ecosystem in which businesses can thrive. In 2025 Venture Central conducted the Homegrown Innovators event, formed a regional CEO Advisory Board which shared needs and policy considerations, coordinated an entrepreneur service organization advisory group to enhance information sharing and collaboration, developed and expanded an ecosystem resource map, completed the Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative grant, applied for two grants, and supported advancement of a statewide angel network project.
$71,627 spent$31,150 earned by the program14% of program spendingGoVA REI (Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative) for Region 9: Counties of Albemarle, Culpeper, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison, Nelson and Orange, the city of Charlottesville and the town of Culpeper. The Community Investment Collaborative (CIC), in partnership with Venture Central developed a regional strategy to strengthen and grow the GO Virginia Region 9 entrepreneurial ecosystem. The project engaged a broad range of stakeholders in the region, inventoried available resources and small business funding sources, and developed actionable strategies to increase the rate of new business formation and improve survival rates for early-stage businesses in urban and rural areas. The REI Report "Thrive In Place" was finalized in October of 2024 and an Action Plan was produced in 2025 to highlights gaps and make recommendations based on the report.
$71,205 spent$71,205 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $498,616.
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 2023 to 2024, from $169k to $318k (+89%).
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 11% · 2022 82% · 2023 84% · 2024 81% · 2025 75%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of VENTURE CENTRAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Rebecca Haydock
CEO
Board chair
Timothy Harvey
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $237k → $75k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 VENTURE CENTRAL 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
VENTURE CENTRAL INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
70% 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 VENTURE CENTRAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 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
100% of VENTURE CENTRAL INC's grant income comes from Virginia funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $335k 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
VENTURE CENTRAL INC has grown faster than half of the 7,175 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like VENTURE CENTRAL 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
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 VENTURE CENTRAL 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 VENTURE CENTRAL INC?
- VENTURE CENTRAL INC (Virginia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $758,321 to it, the largest being CHARLOTTESVILLE AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($335,321). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VENTURE CENTRAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $758,321 in grants to VENTURE CENTRAL INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VENTURE CENTRAL INC?
- CHARLOTTESVILLE AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $335,321 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VENTURE CENTRAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 3 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