Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2025. IRS ruling in Feb 1969.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
72 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
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Who runs it and what they're paid
26 people listed on the 990; $168K paid to officers and key staff.
James McKissic’s $129K as President is at the 55th percentile of top reported officer pay among 3924 $1–10M arts & culture nonprofits. Peer set: organizations in the same NTEE major field of work and revenue-size band, compared on each org’s own highest-paid officer/key-employee, from Form 990 Part VII / 990-PF Part VIII. Descriptive placement, not a verdict on whether the pay is appropriate.
Compensation history total reportable pay by year · 3 named individuals · Part VII
| Name | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | FY2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James McKissic | $129,499 | $129,499 | $117,459 | $112,865 | $109,137 | $2,019 |
| Rodney Vanvalkenburg | — | — | — | — | — | $105,456 |
| Sallie P Lawrence | $76,952 | $76,952 | $68,797 | $66,547 | $63,978 | $60,685 |
Total reportable compensation (Form 990 Part VII column D / Schedule J column E) by filing year, matched by name within this organization. The Schedule J base / bonus / deferred breakdown is not parsed into this dataset.
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Questions the 990 asks
The form asks each of these directly. These are the filed answers.
- Family or business ties among officersPt VI · Ln 2No
- Top official's pay set by an independent reviewPt VI · Ln 15aYes
Programs and updates
Encourages widespread public involvement and support for the arts.
Questions for Artsbuild
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Artsbuild provides broad financial support of the arts in hamilton county through competitive annual grants for local arts organizations and smaller grants for unique arts projects, with the goal to increase access to the arts.
In 2019-2020 through artsbuild's imagine! Arts education initiative, more than 11,000 public school students in grades k-4 attended a professional arts performance or exhibit. Artsbuild also provided free arts integration professional development workshops for more than 120 teachers.
In 2020, artsbuild promptly responded during the pandemic to establish an artist emergency fund in order to provide immediate relief for individual artists in chattanooga-hamilton county. Artsbuild was able to disperse more than $41,000 from the fund to 95 artists.
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2020 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY20 | End FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $223K | $250K |
| InvestmentsLn 11–13 | $14.5M | $14.0M |
| Land, buildings, equipmentLn 10c | $1.6M | $1.5M |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $16.5M | $15.9M |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $1.5M | $1.5M |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $15.0M | $14.4M |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $1.1M | $1.1M | ||
| Grants to domestic individualsLn 2 | $41K | $41K | ||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $171K | $33K | $89K | $49K |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $203K | $73K | $50K | $80K |
| Pension plan contributionsLn 8 | $18K | $8K | $6K | $5K |
| Other employee benefitsLn 9 | $48K | $12K | $23K | $13K |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $29K | $8K | $11K | $10K |
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $15K | $15K | ||
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $46K | $46K | ||
| Office expensesLn 13 | $19K | $8K | $5K | $6K |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $12K | $4K | $3K | $4K |
| OccupancyLn 16 | $53K | $19K | $13K | $21K |
| TravelLn 17 | $1K | $780 | $180 | $350 |
| Conferences, conventions and meetingsLn 19 | $2K | $2K | ||
| InterestLn 20 | $29K | $10K | $7K | $11K |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $60K | $21K | $15K | $23K |
| InsuranceLn 23 | $8K | $3K | $2K | $3K |
| Other expenses (24a–d)Ln 24 | $27K | $1K | $15K | $10K |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $1.9M | $1.4M | $257K | $284K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 Latest | $3.7M | $2.5M | $1.2M | $19.8M | 990 PDF |
| FY2024 | $3.0M | $2.6M | $325K | $18.6M | 990 PDF |
| FY2023 | $3.3M | $2.4M | $919K | $18.3M | 990 PDF |
| FY2022 | $156K | $2.3M | −$2.1M | $17.3M | 990 PDF |
| FY2021 | $7.1M | $2.1M | $5.0M | $19.4M | 990 PDF |
| FY2020 Viewing | $1.4M | $1.9M | −$546K | $14.4M | 990 PDF |
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Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2020 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $1,385,952 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 23 of 23 board members independent, no flags
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $1,385,952 across 8 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $1,932,195 across 18 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $15,857,778 assets, 12 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $14,383,276 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2020 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
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