How do I find funders for a grassroots arts and culture nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on grassroots arts and culture organizations, currently The Scioto County Area Foundation, Fort Worth Art Association, Monimos Foundation. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

What counts as a grassroots organization here?

Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.

How much grant money goes to grassroots arts and culture organizations?

$2.8B reached 20,588 grassroots arts and culture organizations from 18,107 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.

How recent is this data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Causes · Arts and culture · grassroots

Who funds grassroots arts and culture organizations

The funders that back grassroots arts and culture organizations are specialists, not generalists: The Scioto County Area Foundation gives them 84× the national rate, with 82% of its grants going here. These are the small organizations the big-institution funders usually miss, so the funders that show up here are the ones worth a small arts and culture nonprofit's time.

$2.8B

granted

20,588

organizations

18,107

funders

The short version

18,107 funders gave $2.8B to 20,588 grassroots arts and culture organizations (grassroots (under $1M)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is The Scioto County Area Foundation, giving 84× the national rate to grassroots arts and culture organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is The Andrew W Mellon Foundation, at $92M.
The grassroots arts and culture organization drawing the most is Southern Ohio Museum Corporation, at $28M.

Funders most focused on grassroots arts and culture organizations

Not the biggest checks, the most committed: each gives this size and cause an outsized share of its budget against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank.

The Scioto County Area Foundation84×$33M · 82% of its giving Fort Worth Art Association68×$5M · 100% of its giving Monimos Foundation51.9×$3M · 88% of its giving Community Art Stabilization Trust50.4×$2M · 100% of its giving Medford Public Library Foundation Inc48×$2M · 100% of its giving Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education48×$11M · 49% of its giving Bogle Family Foundation47×$2M · 92% of its giving Los Angeles Philharmonic Association44.7×$2M · 96% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

Real grantmakers giving the most to grassroots arts and culture organizations (donor-advised and mega-funds excluded).

1The Andrew W Mellon Foundation$92M 2The Scioto County Area Foundation$33M 3Windgate Charitable Foundation Inc$19M 4The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation$18M 5The McKnight Foundation$17M 6The Miami Foundation Inc$16M 7Lilly Endowment Inc$12M 8The Ford Foundation$11M

Grassroots arts and culture organizations that draw the most

Sized by grant dollars received. Pick one to see exactly who funds it.

20,578 other grassroots arts and culture organizations$2.7B

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a grassroots arts and culture nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on grassroots arts and culture organizations, currently The Scioto County Area Foundation, Fort Worth Art Association, Monimos Foundation. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.
What counts as a grassroots organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.
How much grant money goes to grassroots arts and culture organizations?: $2.8B reached 20,588 grassroots arts and culture organizations from 18,107 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.
How recent is this data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

Strange bedfellows

the named clusters of US funding

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

State money flows

the interactive map of money crossing state lines

Size is median total revenue; cause is the recipient's NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File. Read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML across recent fiscal years, among (c)(3) funders and recipients resolved by EIN, with the regranting layer netted out. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.