East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts engages youth and young adults in imagining and creating new worlds for themselves and new visions for their communities through the inspiration and discipline of rigorous training in world performance traditions.
- Income
- $5.8 million
- Spending
- $4.4 million
- Spent on programs
- 76%
- Reserves
- 20.1 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 71%
- Employees
- 102
- Volunteers
- 38
- Highest pay
- $137,723, executive dir.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Strong: 95 out of 100. Higher than 87% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
35 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 20.1 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 2% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 25% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 10% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1576% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 11 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 90 out of 100. Higher than 49% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 2513 of 13 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (3)
- $3.3 million spent. In 2024-25, we served over 300 students at our Main Site, with several others on the waitlist. We averaged about 60 group classes, 74 private lessons, and 7 resident ensemble rehearsals per week, and produced over 20 performances.Summer Intensive: In July-August 2025, 101 YADP students completed our five-week, 200-hour Summer Intensive immersion session. The Summer Intensive requires cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary training, as well as technical instruction in music, dance, and contemporary theater forms and culminates with three evenings of student presentations.Young Artist Diploma Program: Instruction for all 100 Diploma students averaged 6-8 hours per week of instruction consisting of lessons, classes, and ensembles based on both specific repertoire traditions and East Bay Centers Deep Roots Wide World Curriculum. Students participated in individual recitals in March and November and group recitals in April and December. The Centers Program Leadership team continued to develop and advance curriculum and learning goals for all seven program pathways, with a focus on clear, explicit youth development outcomes and strategies that are the foundation of our students success.Resident Companies: Our seven youth resident companies, focusing on celebrating cultural artforms (i.e. West African Music and Dance, Mexican Music and Dance) enroll 50 advanced Center students to reach local audiences of thousands of community members annually. In 2024, Resident Companies performed in 11 community events total. In December 2024, three Resident Companies - Voices of Reason, Iron Triangle Theater Company, and Richmond Chamber Ensemble, participated in the Downtown Holiday Festival: A Richmond Nutcracker.
- Youth Leadership: The Center continued to offer opportunities for our students to connect to their community, while building a strong sense of ownership.Throughout the year, your Student Leadership Committee met to contribute their ideas to how the Center can continue to improve and be inclusive of all students. This included helping facilitate the New Student Orientation for the Diploma program, forming a welcome committee for Summer Intensive, creating a Spirit Week for the Center, and helping promote our student performances.Additionally, the Center received a grant from the Creative Work Fund to launch a collaboration and artistic commission with Robert Moses. The collaboration involved Robert doing a series of workshops with our students around storytelling and movement, creating an original piece that represents the students' stories. To launch this process, he met with our student leadership group in the fall to get some ideas/a sense of direction on how he might best learn about the Center and it's students. Student leadership helped him create a whiteboard in the CT that asked different questions to students ("What are you most proud of"? What's your favorite part about East Bay Center?" "Who inspires you?" etc) - students responded over the course of a week. In the spring, he met with a group of 12 students to create and choreograph the dance piece, which culminated in a performance in June.Student Support: To support our older students to develop their full artistic, academic and social potential, the Center continued our college scholarship program for Young Artists Diploma Program graduates. The scholarship funded 5 full, renewable scholarships for students who plan to pursue the performing arts in college, 4 four year scholarships (approx $10,000/year) recognizing perseverance and motivation, and $2,000 renewable scholarships for all other graduates. As part of their scholarship,graduates will continue to receive coaching and mentoring from the Centers team of social workers, staff and faculty.
- School and Neighborhood Partnerships ProgramsIn 2024-2025, East Bay Center, in partnership with West Contra Costa Unified School District, delivered programs to approximately 3,500 students. The programs offer a unique approach to teaching fundamental music skills about global traditions while increasing equitable access to arts education and positively impacting school culture and climate.The curriculum and content for our In School Arts Program focused on music fundamentals, hands-on instruction, global music repertoire, and ensemble performance techniques at Grant, King, Obama, Nystrom, Peres, Valley View, Washington, and Stege Elementary Schools. Across these eight campuses:- Students on average receive 30 weeks of class instruction, which includes access to appropriate musical instruments and supplies.- Kindergarten through 3rd grade receive weekly music classes of 30 minutes each.- 4th through 6th grade receive 45 minutes of class per week- Students perform in at least two presentations each year at each school- Community performances happen throughout the year in alignment with the school calendar (i.e., Back to School Night, holiday festivals, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month etc.).In addition, we continued our novel Rotations program for grades 4-6 at three schools, which included two 15 week courses for students in Hip Hop, Drumming, Mexican Music and Dance, and Persian Dance. We also produced several assemblies for Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month, featuring professional artists and introducing students to new cultural art forms.East Bay Center provided after school programs at an additional two schools, with a focus on dance.We also provided instrumental coaching/private lessons at four middle and high schools. All teaching artists participated in 2 professional development/training sessions. In total, we averaged 137.7 hours of classes per week in 2024-25.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated November 6, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending June 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since May 1969.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated November 4, 2026.
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