Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Words Beats and Life Inc
Words Beats and Life Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,232,865 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($216,260). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $173k
What Words Beats and Life Inc does
Mission
The mission of Words Beats and Life is to transform individual lives and communities through Hip-Hop culture in all its forms: emceeing, deejaying, graffiti, street art, spoken word poetry, dance, beat production, and knowledge of self.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Our Arts Education programming exposes students to new knowledge, techniques and methods, as well as provides opportunities to grow their knowledge and network through alternative winter and spring break activities. We also provide opportunities for young artists to practice what we teach through performances, and public art making, as well as encouraging these students to manage their own projects and events by participating in our Arts Management program. Our work in schools has been with young people in Middle School, High School and College, with participants ranging from 12-22. In community contexts, we work with people as young as 10 and with adults 23 and older. Despite popular misunderstandings about our culture, Hip-Hop is likely created, participated in, and celebrated by the most diverse set of people in terms of audiences, practitioners, supporters, and consumers. Our teachers, students, audiences, and selected master artists are diverse not just racially, ethnically, religiously, and economically but also in terms of age, gender, orientation, and ability status. Programs include the WBL Academy, Like a Boss: Arts Management Program, Walk It Like I talk It,…
$608,349 spent42% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$208,719 spent14% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$91,789 spent6% of program spendingOther Programs
$553,264 spent38% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,462,121.
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 2022 to 2023, from $235k to $434k (+84%).
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 40% · 2018 48% · 2019 41% · 2020 51% · 2021 29% · 2022 37% · 2023 42% · 2024 42%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of Words Beats and Life Inc’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. 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
Mazi Mutafa
Executive Director
Board chair
Jamila Sams
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $106k → $119k.
6 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 Words Beats and Life 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
Words Beats and Life Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
57% 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 Words Beats and Life Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 55% · 2019 64% · 2020 30% · 2021 34% · 2022 29% · 2023 29% — 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
50% of Words Beats and Life Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
Words Beats and Life Inc draws 50% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $463k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Words Beats and Life Inc has grown faster than three-quarters 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
Government funding Words Beats and Life Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $523k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$470k
- Department of State$53k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Words Beats and Life 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Words Beats and Life 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 Words Beats and Life Inc?
- Words Beats and Life Inc (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,232,865 to it, the largest being GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($216,260). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Words Beats and Life Inc have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,232,865 in grants to Words Beats and Life Inc, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Words Beats and Life Inc?
- GREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $216,260 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Words Beats and Life Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Words Beats and Life →
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 23 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