AMERICAN COLLEGE OF THE BUILDING ARTS

As filed

Subsection

03

NTEE code

B30

Classification

1000

Street

649 MEETING ST

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2024

• The American College of the Building Arts (hereinafter "ACBA or "the College") educates and trains artisans in the traditional building arts to foster exceptional craftsmanship and encourage the preservation, enrichment, and understanding of the world's architectural heritage through a liberal arts and sciences education. ACBA is a liberal arts & sciences institution is licensed to offer both Associate's (A. A. S.) and Bachelor's (B. A. S.) degrees. As a liberal arts & sciences institution, ACBA integrates general education and the craft specializations curricula, in order to produce the best educated and trained building artisans possible. The College seeks applicants who have a passion for the building arts, and have both the skill and academic background to succeed in the program. A diverse student body is sought from a national pool of candidates. The College is student-focused and provides a community in which the students can engage in creative and intellectual inquiry. In September 2018, ACBA earned national accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. Vision of the College The American College of the Building Arts will be the leading resource in higher education dedicated to the innovative and continued practice, study and promotion of the Building Arts. To achieve ACBAs mission we will be governed by the following five strategic objectives: Life: Long-term success will be based upon the development of a committed and inspired community which is dedicated to fulfill the mission of the College. Achieve and Excel: Establish accredited academic programs that result in superior student competencies in a Liberal Arts and Building Arts major that affords our students a range of post-graduation options and offers exceptional opportunities for the Colleges broader constituents. Learning Objectives: Seek opportunities to create or establish successful educational learning outcomes. Outreach and Development of Educated Artisans: Inspire future students and supporters by encouraging and promoting the Building Arts in the United States and throughout the world. Resources: Identify, develop, and manage resources whether human, economic, or physical in order to meet the mission that ensures directed growth of the institution. College History American College of the Building Arts was founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, which struck the Southeastern coast of the United States in 1989. The devastating category four hurricane damaged or destroyed many historical coastal-Carolina buildings and left much of Charlestons iron, plaster and fine wood work in disrepair. It took ten years to rebuild and restore the citys damaged homes and historical buildings, in part, because of a shortage of skilled artisans. In 1999, in response to this gap in the building arts, a group of local movers and shakers planted the seeds that led to the founding of ACBA. Initially, classes and workshops that focused on the building arts were offered at a number of different Charleston area locations. However, the original educational model proved difficult to execute, and the college founders regrouped to establish a degree-granting college, integrating the American liberal arts degree model with the artisan teaching styles of Europe. In 2004, ACBA was licensed by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to recruit students for a Bachelor of Applied Science and an Associate of Applied Science in the building arts. In 2009 the college awarded its first degrees to seven students. During these same years, ACBA reconfigured its administration, hiring current president, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Colby M. Broadwater III and other administrative team members with strong business experience. Campus History The first classes were offered at several different locations in and around the city of Charleston, including the Old Charleston District Jail, which became the colleges primary location for 17 years. Carpentry and forged architectural iron craft specializations were housed at a separate site. The Jail was originally constructed in 1802 and expanded in 1855 to include living quarters for the warden and jailers on the street side and an octagonal rear wing. Many infamous inmates were housed in the prison, including high seas pirates, the female mass murderer Lavinia Fischer and Denmark Vesey, a free African American who plotted a slave rebellion that was discovered before it could be executed. During the Civil War both Confederate and Union prisoners were incarcerated within its walls. Although it had no electricity or running water, the jail housed prisoners until it was decommissioned in 1939. During the years spent occupying and renovating the jail, the college viewed itself as caretaker of the building and its rich history. As part of ACBA's living learning laboratory, faculty members led students in assessing needs and proper methods of restoration, preservation and reconstruction. Having outgrown its existing facilities, ACBA launched a major fundraising effort in 2014 to establish a single, expanded campus that could consolidate the teaching of all trades under one roof. With a major donation from Parallel Capital and from Russell and Betty Joan Hitt, founders of Virginia-based HITT Contracting, early supporters of ACBA, the college raised funds to purchase and renovate the abandoned Charleston Trolley Barn on Upper Meeting Street. On May 7, 2015, 150 people attended the ground breaking ceremony. It took just over one year and approximately $6 million to build the new ACBA campus that was formally opened in October 2016. The newly repurposed building maintains the historical ethos of the original structure while providing the students with modern academic and workshop space. Approximately 39,000 square feet were carved out of the barns original 24,000 square foot footprint. The front third of the three-story building houses an exhibition lobby, administrative offices, classrooms, labs and a community room available to local civic groups. Workshops and trade classrooms are located in the back two-thirds of the building. A student lounge, faculty offices and conference spaces occupy the second floor. The third floor rafters house the computer lab and ACBAs unique library and its special collections. Program Offerings for Bachelor of Applied Science:Architectural CarpentryBlacksmithingClassical Architecture & DesignArchitectural StonecarvingPlasterTimber FramingProgram Offerings for Associate of Applied ScienceArchitectural StonecarvingBlacksmithingHeritage Masonry and StonecarvingPlasterworkFundamentals of Architectural Carpentry & Timber FramingGeneral Education Core CurriculumAs the only college in America that provides a four-year college-level degree combining training in the traditional trades with a liberal arts core curriculum, ACBA is unique. If you want to learn how to lay a brick or weld metal, there are a lot of good trade schools around the country where you can do that. An ACBA degree, however, teaches you much more. Here you will not only learn the skills of your craft, you will also acquire the broad liberal arts foundation that allows you to design, to be a leader in your field, to understand not only how to do something, but to think critically within the context, science and history of your craft, to manage a business, to communicate effectively with clients, and to market your skills. ACBA also offers an alternative to traditional trade apprenticeships by creating a curriculum for studying the building trades at the college level. Its core liberal arts courses are taught in a way that makes them applicable to the building trades. For example, rather than biology or astronomy, ACBA students study material science, the science of how building materials behave under such factors as rain, humidity, wind, stress, heat and cold. Business and leadership courses provide the basics of entrepreneurship. Art courses teach how to make your hand follow your brain's directives. Regardless of their craft specialization, ACBA students combine classroom instruction with group and individual work in the shop or studio during the school year and practice their skills in the real world during summer externships.ExternshipsExternships help students expand their skills and gain valuable real-world experience during their course of study. Past externship experiences have allowed students to repair windows in the Oval Office of the White House, study under master blacksmiths of Italy, and replicated garden follies at George Washington's Mount Vernon.Most externships last eight to 10 weeks and take place in June and July. Some students may receive compensation for their work, and all students gain valuable networking contacts as they prepare for their careers. Students seeking the A.A.S. degree must complete one externship.

  Expenses $4,106,033 · Grants $237,000 · Revenue $3,327,284

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Officers and directors · 2024

As listed in Part VII of the 2024 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

• 2024

  Revenue

  $4,795,023

  Expenses

  $4,630,199

  Contributions

  $1,296,657

  Grants paid

  $237,000

• 2023

  Revenue

  $4,646,910

  Expenses

  $4,458,431

  Contributions

  $1,413,232

  Grants paid

  $446,932

• 2022

  Revenue

  $3,856,644

  Expenses

  $3,680,355

  Contributions

  $936,989

  Grants paid

  $305,618

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

• 2021 · 990

  Revenue

  $4,754,308

  Expenses

  $3,008,311

  Assets (EOY)

  $11,057,895

• 2020 · 990

  Revenue

  $3,152,550

  Expenses

  $2,967,440

  Assets (EOY)

  $8,182,078

• 2019 · 990

  Revenue

  $3,073,378

  Expenses

  $2,971,508

  Assets (EOY)

  $7,981,366

• 2018 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,881,901

  Expenses

  $2,560,249

  Assets (EOY)

  $9,194,710

• 2017 · 990

  Revenue

  $3,017,879

  Expenses

  $2,393,865

  Assets (EOY)

  $9,563,836

• 2016 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,055,120

  Expenses

  $2,036,617

  Assets (EOY)

  $9,791,647

• 2015 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,432,155

  Expenses

  $1,825,343

  Assets (EOY)

  $8,501,565

• 2014 · 990

  Revenue

  $5,269,346

  Expenses

  $1,580,644

  Assets (EOY)

  $8,174,423

• 2013 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,293,572

  Expenses

  $1,553,028

  Assets (EOY)

  $3,501,287

• 2012 · 990

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  $1,495,089

  Assets (EOY)

  $2,805,645

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all. Showing the 10 most recent; the API carries the rest.

Grants made

No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.

Grants received

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $50,500

  2023 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC

  $34,362

  2023 · EDUCATION

• COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC

  $29,253

  2024 · EDUCATION

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $26,850

  2024 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING

  $20,000

  2022 · EDUCATION

• AMG CHARITABLE GIFT FOUNDATION

  $20,000

  2024 · EDUCATION

• DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING

  $16,000

  2023 · EDUCATION

• MOUNT VERNON LADIES ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION

  $10,000

  2024 · GALA SPONSORSHIP

• AMG CHARITABLE GIFT FOUNDATION

  $10,000

  2023 · EDUCATION

• DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING

  $7,000

  2024 · EDUCATION

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Taxable family

From Schedule R Parts I, III and IV: entities that legally are the filer, and taxable partnerships, corporations and trusts it is related to. These record ownership and control, not shared board members or money.

Other IRS files