Skip to content
Colburn Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

Colburn Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$9.2M
Granted FY2024still arriving
102
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$4.4M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$34MEducation$1.9MReligion$216kYouth Development$111kHealth$38kPhilanthropy$10k
02FY2024 · 102 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k22 grants · $107k
  • $10k–50k64 grants · $1.3M
  • $50k–250k10 grants · $853k
  • $250k+6 grants · $7.0M
$15,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$204M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Colburn School$4,390,473
Los Angeles Opera Company$982,500
Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn$772,500
LA Chamber Orchestra Society$321,000
Musica Angelica$274,500
Los Angeles Master Chorale$258,000
USC Thornton School of Music$155,000
UCLA Foundation$115,000
KUSC$107,500
Long Beach Camerata Singers$100,000
Cal State University-Northridge$92,500
Neighborhood Music School Associati$63,000
Idyllwild Arts Foundation$60,000
Pacific Symphony$55,000
St James Episcopal Church$55,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY23–24, $11k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Urban Voices Project: $6k → 14%Urban Voices Project: $5k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$34M · 102 repeat orgs$395k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +38% since the first grant, against -5% for those funded once.

102 repeat relationships: 80 still active in FY2024, 22 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

102
17

Total granted

$34M
$239k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
-5%

Still filing today

72%
18%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $156k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationYouth DevelopmentInternationalHuman ServicesReligionOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • TC
    THE COLBURN SCHOOL
    4× · 2021–2024 · $17M · revenue +17%
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES OPERA COMPANY
    4× · 2021–2024 · $3.9M · revenue +50%
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION
    4× · 2021–2024 · $3.4M · revenue +64%

Funded once

  • OF
    OJAI FESTIVALS LTD
    one grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue +1%
  • MA
    MUSEUM ASSOCIATES CO LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM
    one grant, 2021 · $40k
  • ST
    SAVE THE MUSIC FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $40k · revenue -5%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
California Bach Society Inc

Choral Music Performances: California Bach Society is a 30-voice chamber choir known for finely wrought interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque music, often accompanied by leading period instrumentalists. Each season, the choir performs…

—
2
San Bernardino Valley Concert Association
—
3
Socal Symphony Society

The Culver City Symphony Orchestra strives to enlighten and inspire the diverse citizenry of Culver City and the Los Angeles area through the presentation of orchestral music concerts, to present works of American composers, and to…

Arts & Culture
4
San Jose Chamber Music Society

To present chamber music concerts in San Jose performed by top ensembles from the Bay Area, across America, and around the world. To enrich our audience experience through post-concert Q&As, program notes, and meet-the-composer…

—
5
Foundation for Modern Opera
—
6
California Music Center

To seek and nurture exceptional young string musicians, foster and further their performance and professional skills development, and provide them with performance opportunities and monetary support.

Arts & Culture
7
San Jose Chamber Orchestra

The mission of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra (SJCO) is to share exciting, though-provoking, and vibrant Music by contemporary and time-honored composers reflecting the cultural diversity of our everchanging community, and to support and…

Unclassified
8
Vanguard Concerts
—
9
South Coast Symphony

Founded in 1996, The South Coast Symphony, the unstuffy symphony, is a resident orchestra for South Orange County. The seventy member Symphony services South Orange County's fifteen diverse communities with a professional, accessible and…

Arts & Culture
10
Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara Inc

To bring high quality classical musicians from around the globe to the santa barbara area to perform orchestral, vocal, solo instrumental, and chamber concerts.

Arts & Culture
11
Los Angeles Symphony

The main function of los angeles symphony is to operate educational organization which provides the quality music to local community comprised of various ethnic groups.

Arts & Culture
12
Chamber Music Oc

The Performance Division is designed to provide residents of the greater Orange County area with world-class chamber music performances presented by rising stars and established veterans in the classical music world. The Education Division…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Long Beach Symphony Association; the most unlike its peers is Jacaranda. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

86 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 86 of the 138 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
26
Early backer (in before they grew)
84/86
Grantees still filing
64/86
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE COLBURN SCHOOL: $16,887,959 · Arts & CultureTHE COLBURN SCHOOLLOS ANGELES OPERA COMPANY: $3,856,500 · Arts & CultureLOS ANGELES OPERA COMPANYLOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION: $3,378,000 · Arts & CultureLOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATIONLOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE ASSOCIATION: $1,287,250 · Arts & CultureMUSICA ANGELICA: $1,139,500 · Arts & Culture+53 more: $4,276,900 · Arts & Culture+53 moreLA Chamber Orchestra Society: $637,000 · OtherLA Chambe…Cal State University-Northridge: $273,750 · OtherCal State…THE DA CAMERA SOCIETY: $241,250 · OtherTHE DA CA…Long Beach Camerata Singers: $208,750 · OtherLong Beac…SAINT JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $110,000 · OtherST JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH A CORP: $105,000 · Other+59 more: $1,380,462 · Other+59 moreUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $1,090,250 · EducationUCLA FOUNDATION: $326,000 · EducationIDYLLWILD ARTS FOUNDATION: $261,250 · EducationRENAISSANCE ARTS ACADEMY: $163,250 · EducationThe New School: $88,750 · Education+6 more: $189,750 · EducationHEART OF LOS ANGELES YOUTH INC: $96,250 · Youth DevelopmentJACARANDA: $38,000 · InternationalURBAN VOICES PROJECT: $11,000 · Human ServicesST MATTHEWS MUSIC GUILD: $10,000 · Religion
Arts & Culture$30,826,109Other$2,956,212Education$2,119,250Youth Development$96,250International$38,000Human Services$11,000Religion$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE COLBURN SCHOOL: $16,887,959 over 4y, 6.9% of budgetLOS ANGELES OPERA COMPANY: $3,856,500 over 4y, 2.9% of budgetLOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION: $3,378,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetLOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE ASSOCIATION: $1,287,250 over 4y, 6.9% of budgetMUSICA ANGELICA: $1,139,500 over 4y, 77% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $1,090,250 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC: $762,500 over 2y, 11% of budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $326,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetIDYLLWILD ARTS FOUNDATION: $261,250 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD MUSIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION: $235,500 over 4y, 9.4% of budgetPHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY: $217,500 over 4y, 1.7% of budgetPacific Symphony: $205,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetMUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST: $193,750 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS: $185,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMarlboro School of Music Inc: $172,500 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetRENAISSANCE ARTS ACADEMY: $163,250 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetPasadena Conservatory of Music: $157,500 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetSegerstrom Center for the Arts: $116,250 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetYOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS INC: $111,250 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetDELIRIUM MUSICUM: $106,250 over 4y, 10% of budgetLOS ANGELES CHILDREN'S CHORUS: $105,000 over 4y, 1.7% of budgetPACIFIC OPERA PROJECT: $97,050 over 4y, 4.6% of budgetHEART OF LOS ANGELES YOUTH INC: $96,250 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetAMERICAN YOUTH SYMPHONY INC: $95,000 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetLong Beach Symphony Association: $90,500 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetThe New School: $88,750 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNEW WEST SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $83,750 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetTHE MUSIC GUILD: $83,500 over 4y, 34% of budgetPACIFIC CHORALE: $80,250 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetLONG BEACH OPERA: $80,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetLOS ANGELES MUSIC AND ART SCHOOL: $69,250 over 3y, 3.5% of budgetMONDAY EVENING CONCERTS: $68,750 over 4y, 13% of budgetPERFORMING ARTS CENTER OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY: $67,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMADISON PROJECT: $66,250 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetSOUNDS LIKE LA: $64,500 over 4y, 5.6% of budgetOCCIDENTAL COLLEGE: $62,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetVOX FEMINA LOS ANGELES: $54,500 over 4y, 4.4% of budgetELEMENTAL MUSIC: $52,500 over 4y, 2.6% of budgetHarmony Project: $52,500 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetCALIFORNIA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $51,750 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetETM-LA INC: $51,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetINNER CITY YOUTH ORCHRSTRA OF LOS ANGELES INC: $50,750 over 4y, 1.8% of budgetSongfest Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 5.7% of budgetOJAI FESTIVALS LTD: $50,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Inc: $47,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetSANTA CECILIA OPERA AND ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION: $46,750 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetYOUNG MUSICIANS FOUNDATION: $45,500 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetGRAND PERFORMANCES: $45,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds THE COLBURN SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES OPERA COMPANY ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds MUSICA ANGELICA ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
  • Who funds THE LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds UCLA FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds IDYLLWILD ARTS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD MUSIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY ↗
  • Who funds Pacific Symphony ↗
  • Who funds MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS ↗
  • Who funds Marlboro School of Music Inc ↗
  • Who funds RENAISSANCE ARTS ACADEMY ↗
  • Who funds Pasadena Conservatory of Music ↗
  • Who funds Segerstrom Center for the Arts ↗
  • Who funds YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS INC ↗
  • Who funds DELIRIUM MUSICUM ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES CHILDREN'S CHORUS ↗
  • Who funds PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT ↗
  • Who funds HEART OF LOS ANGELES YOUTH INC ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN YOUTH SYMPHONY INC ↗
  • Who funds Long Beach Symphony Association ↗
  • Who funds The New School ↗
  • Who funds NEW WEST SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds THE MUSIC GUILD ↗
  • Who funds PACIFIC CHORALE ↗
  • Who funds LONG BEACH OPERA ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES MUSIC AND ART SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds MONDAY EVENING CONCERTS ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Ralph M Parsons F…California Community …The Ahmanson Foundati…The Meredith and Rose…Ann & Gordon Getty Fo…Perenchio FoundationPasadena Showcase Hou…The Annenberg Foundat…Clarence E Heller Cha…Stern Sidney Memorial…The Rose Hills Founda…D'Addario Foundation …
The Ralph M Parsons FoundationCA52.4× affinity25 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · California Community Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · The Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charit (Aka the Music Man Foundation) · Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation · Perenchio Foundation · Pasadena Showcase House For The Arts · The Annenberg Foundation · Clarence E Heller Charitable Foundation · Stern Sidney Memorial Tuw · The Rose Hills Foundation · D'Addario Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Colburn Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Colburn Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    32report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Colburn Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Colburn Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 138 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Colburn’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home