How do I find funders for a mid-size arts and culture nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on mid-size arts and culture organizations, currently Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found, Madison Children's Museum Foundation, United States Marshals Museum. 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 mid-size organization here?

Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: mid-size ($1M to $10M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.

How much grant money goes to mid-size arts and culture organizations?

$6.8B reached 4,492 mid-size arts and culture organizations from 18,564 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 · mid-size

Who funds mid-size arts and culture organizations

The funders that back mid-size arts and culture organizations are specialists, not generalists: Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found gives them 40.3× the national rate, with 97% of its grants going here.

$6.8B

granted

4,492

organizations

18,564

funders

The short version

18,564 funders gave $6.8B to 4,492 mid-size arts and culture organizations (mid-size ($1M to $10M)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found, giving 40.3× the national rate to mid-size arts and culture organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is The Andrew W Mellon Foundation, at $247M.
The mid-size arts and culture organization drawing the most is The Museum of Language Arts Inc, at $43M.

Funders most focused on mid-size 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.

Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found40.3×$37M · 97% of its giving Madison Children's Museum Foundation38.1×$16M · 100% of its giving United States Marshals Museum37.4×$14M · 100% of its giving Barbara Newington Foundation37.1×$14M · 100% of its giving Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation36.7×$13M · 100% of its giving Connect2Culture36.6×$13M · 100% of its giving Open Library of Richmond Inc36.6×$17M · 95% of its giving Roderick MacArthur Foundation36.2×$12M · 100% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

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

1The Andrew W Mellon Foundation$247M 2The Ford Foundation$70M 3John D and Catherine T Macarthur$59M 4John S and James L Knight Foundation$46M 5The Shubert Foundation Inc$39M 6The Wallace Foundation$37M 7Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found$37M 8California Community Foundation$35M

Mid-size arts and culture organizations that draw the most

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

4,482 other mid-size arts and culture organizations$6.5B

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a mid-size arts and culture nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on mid-size arts and culture organizations, currently Ann B & Thomas L Friedman Family Found, Madison Children's Museum Foundation, United States Marshals Museum. 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 mid-size organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: mid-size ($1M to $10M). Cause is its NTEE classification in the IRS Business Master File.
How much grant money goes to mid-size arts and culture organizations?: $6.8B reached 4,492 mid-size arts and culture organizations from 18,564 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.