Maine · Nonprofit
WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS
WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS (Maine) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,438,024 to it, the largest being WINDGATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC ($3,358,759). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $5.4M
- Net assets
- $8.3M
What Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts does
Mission
To provide artistic education by providing a residency/retreat for ceramic artists from across the country and abroad who create in clay and participate in the clay arts as well as providing community education programs in the mid-coast maine area and nationally.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Summer residency: watershed hosts themed sessions for cohorts of ~ 18 artists-in-residence for between 2 - 3 weeks and provides time, space, chef-prepared meals, and studio support while they explore ideas in their creative practice and create connection and community with other artists.
$454,938 spent$190,587 earned by the program65% of program spendingWorkshops/firings: watershed provides workshops taught by nationally renowned and local teaching artists in various ceramics techniques and methods to artists looking to deepen their artistic practice. Additionally, watershed is home to several different types of kilns (wood, gas, raku), which are rented out to local ceramic artists, many of whom would not have access to atmospheric firings otherwise.
$99,895 spent$31,622 earned by the program14% of program spendingFall residency: watershed collaborated with the color network again in 2024 to host an artist residency, partially funded with a grant from the nea, focused on mentorship for 12 ceramic artists of color for ~ 3 weeks. We provide time, space, chef-prepared meals, and studio support while they explore ideas in their creative practice and create connection and community with other artists.
$105,545 spentof which $12,108 as grants15% of program spendingEducation: watershed provides professional development workshops to maine k-12 art educators, so that they are able to deepen their skillsets and pass on new methods and techniques to their students across the state. These workshops are made affordable for teachers through funding from multiple foundations.
$41,731 spent$4,200 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $702,109.
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 2021 to 2022, from $5.1M to $7.9M (+56%).
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 2% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 5% · 2021 9% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS’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. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $40k → $865k.
11 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS’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
WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 95% · 2019 75% · 2020 77% · 2021 28% · 2022 90% · 2023 93% — 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
20% of WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Maine, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M 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
WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS
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 Maine
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS: 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 WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS?
- WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS (Maine) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,438,024 to it, the largest being WINDGATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC ($3,358,759). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $5,438,024 in grants to WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS?
- WINDGATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,358,759 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 27 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