New Jersey · Nonprofit
VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY
VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY (New Jersey) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,819,907 to it, the largest being THE NICHOLSON FOUNDATION ($1,027,813). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $3.8M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Visual Arts Center of New Jersey does
Mission
The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey nurtures the capacity for personal expression, expands the creative experience and fosters stronger communities by empowering people to see, make and learn about art. Through exhibition, studio school and community programs, the art center engenders connection, curiosity and creative risk-taking among its constituents.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Through studio school classes and workshops, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey serves over 1,100 students every semester. The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey's studip school is the largest non-university arts program in the states. Students of pre-school age to octogenarians enroll each semester. A renowned faculty of professional teaching artists offer classes and workshops in drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, digital media, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry design and more. The art center's studio school calendar is divided into three ten-week semesters. Fall, winter and spring and a shorter six week summer semester. Summer semester includes children's art summer camp program serving nearly 1,000 students age 4-18.
$1,422,307 spent$1,804,245 earned by the program68% of program spendingThe Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is a leading institution of contemporary arts in the tristate region. Its museum exhibition program presents artistically and culturally diverse contemporary art exhibitions to over 8,600 visitiors annually. To address an increasingly global society, the art center features artists from near and far. Many are from new jersey and nearby new york, from across the us and from around the world. In conjuction with each season of exhibitions, the art center presents a variety of exhibition related programming to provide unique and invaluable opportunities for visitors to experience art in new and exciting ways. Approximately 34 volunteers support exhibitions and program implementation, including the art center docent progream which leads tours that serve almost 600 people each year.
$421,940 spent20% of program spendingThe Visual Arts Center of New Jersey's community engagement programs are closely aligned with our mission of bringing art and people together and our committment to making art accessible to all audiences. These programs serve over 1,000 individuals annually, making educational visual arts experiences available to under served, economically disadvantaged, and marginalized audiences. These audiences include at-risk youth, the elderly, people with disabilities, children from dual working parent households, and low income households. We serve the community of summit and surrounding areas including people living in hudson, union, essex, sussex and somerset counties. Programs include providing arts education for formerly homeless women attending kenmore high school in jersey city; "arts alive" a program for elizabeth high school and 8th grade students from throughout the elizabeth district; and the arts from the heart partnership with sage elder-care for people suffering from dementia or alzheimer's.
$240,152 spent$34,065 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,084,399.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $8.1M to $11M (+31%).
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 6% · 2018 4% · 2019 5% · 2020 6% · 2021 9% · 2022 27% · 2023 5% · 2024 6% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Amy Harris
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $103k → $1.4M.
11 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY’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
VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
27% 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 VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 46% · 2019 21% · 2020 26% · 2021 41% · 2022 36% · 2023 72% — 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
55% of VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY'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
VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $894k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Organizations like VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY
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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY: 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 VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY?
- VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY (New Jersey) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,819,907 to it, the largest being THE NICHOLSON FOUNDATION ($1,027,813). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $3,819,907 in grants to VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY?
- THE NICHOLSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,027,813 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VISUAL ARTS CENTER OF NEW JERSEY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 Visual Arts Center of New Jersey →
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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing