Skip to content
Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching at a glance

· Private foundation

Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$8.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
44
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$1.6M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$45MYouth Development$791kArts & Culture$702kEmployment$445kInternational$159kSocial Science$105kCivil Rights$41kAnimals$32kOther$0
02FY2025 · 44 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k11 grants · $63k
  • $10k–50k16 grants · $238k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $850k
  • $250k+12 grants · $7.3M
$15,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$290M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$1,647,898
WALNUT VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$739,790
LONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$690,999
NORWALK-LA MIRADA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$661,422
CENTRALIA SCHOOL DISTRICT$635,316
FULLERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT$532,192
FOUNTAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT$500,497
POMONA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$461,178
BUENA PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT$446,580
SANTA MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$390,146
WISEBURN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$312,804
WHITTIER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT$299,475
EAST WHITTIER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT$223,870
LARCHMONT CHARTER SCHOOL$208,607
TUSTIN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT$204,315
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 (FY19–19, $11k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%IPSWICH REFUGEE PROGRAM: $500 → 10%CITY OF REFUGE SACRAMENTO: $10k → 12%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
CT
CA
MD
DC
GA
TX
FL
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$45M · 82 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +47% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.

82 repeat relationships: 37 still active in FY2025, 45 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

82
59

Total granted

$45M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+34%

Still filing today

40%
37%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $670k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyInternationalHuman ServicesScience & TechOther
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

  • LM
    LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2017–2018 · $933k · revenue +68%
  • LS
    LARCHMONT SCHOOLS
    2× · 2024–2025 · $221k · revenue +0%
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP
    5× · 2017–2021 · $165k · revenue +161%

Funded once

  • NM
    NORWALK-LA MIRADA UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST
    one grant, 2024 · $753k
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT-SFP
    one grant, 2017 · $368k
  • SL
    SAN LORENZO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST
    one grant, 2017 · $67k
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 College of the Arts

California college of the arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. benefitting from its san francisco bay area location, the college prepares…

Education
2
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
3
Association of California School Administrators

The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.

—
4
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
5
Occidental College

See schedule othe mission of occidental college is to provide a gifted and diverse group of students with a total educational experience of the highest quality - one that prepares them for leadership in an increasingly complex,…

Education
6
Sarah Lawrence College

At sarah lawrence college, our mission is to graduate citizens of the world who are diverse in every definition of the word, who take intellectual and creative risks, and who are able to focus exceptional intellectual discipline (continued…

Education
7
Pitzer College

Pitzer College produces engaged socially responsible citizens of the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary liberal arts education emphasizing social justice, intercultural understanding and environmental sensitivity.…

Education
8
Arcadia University

Arcadia university's pioneering, global, integrated, liberal arts, and professional learning experience cultivates leaders who are intellectually fearless and uniquely prepared for life and work. our highly regarded, values-based learning…

Education
9
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
10
President-Board of Trustees Santa Clara College

Scu is a catholic and jesuit institution that makes student learning its central focus, promotes faculty and staff learning in its various forms, and exhibits organizational learning.

Education
11
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
12
Los Angeles Pacific University

Los angeles pacific university exists to deliver high quality, accessible christ-centered education to learners everywhere.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Alder Graduate School of Education; the most unlike its peers is John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 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

62 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 62 of the 150 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
61/62
Grantees still filing
46/62
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $6,825,438 · OtherLOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTFULLERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT: $4,651,540 · OtherFULLERTON SCHOOL DISTRICTNORWALK-LA MIRADA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $3,828,013 · OtherNORWALK-LA MIRADA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTLONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $3,505,005 · OtherLONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBUENA PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT: $2,867,010 · OtherBUENA PARK SCHOOL DISTRICTTUSTIN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $2,785,425 · OtherTUSTIN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTWHITTIER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT: $2,617,154 · OtherWHITTIER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTROWLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $2,316,522 · OtherDOWNEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $1,532,592 · OtherPOMONA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $1,508,707 · Other+91 more: $12,142,459 · Other+91 moreLOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: $933,387 · EducationLARCHMONT SCHOOLS: $221,107 · EducationTHE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ROME: $102,500 · EducationLAUREL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: $100,000 · EducationTHE GO PROJECT INC: $85,000 · EducationLOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS: $61,750 · Education+19 more: $300,450 · EducationTHE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC: $140,000 · Arts & CultureSociety for American Archaeology: $90,000 · Arts & CultureDANCE AND DIALOGUE: $85,000 · Arts & CultureHENRY E HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND ART GALLERY: $84,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS: $56,000 · Arts & CultureSOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO: $20,000 · Arts & Culture+7 more: $39,100 · Arts & CultureISRAEL-AMERICA ACADEMIC EXCHANGE: $95,000 · InternationalMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $46,000 · InternationalHOUSE OF PEACE INC: $5,200 · International+1 more: $3,000 · InternationalAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $105,000 · Social ScienceZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: $30,000 · AnimalsTHE HUNTINGTON FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCAT: $8,980 · PhilanthropyCHAPEL & YORK US FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 · PhilanthropyGOFUNDMEORG: $5,000 · PhilanthropyPASADENA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $4,000 · Philanthropy+1 more: $650 · Philanthropy
Other$44,579,865Education$1,804,194Arts & Culture$514,100International$149,200Social Science$105,000Animals$30,000Philanthropy$23,630

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 budgetLOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: $933,387 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ACME NETWORK: $445,000 over 9y, 27% of budgetLARCHMONT SCHOOLS: $221,107 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetLOS ANGELES EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP: $165,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetTHE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC: $140,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $105,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetTHE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ROME: $102,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetLAUREL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: $100,000 over 4y, 2.5% of budgetISRAEL-AMERICA ACADEMIC EXCHANGE: $95,000 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetSociety for American Archaeology: $90,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetTHE GO PROJECT INC: $85,000 over 9y, 2.8% of budgetDANCE AND DIALOGUE: $85,000 over 7y, 8.8% of budgetHENRY E HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND ART GALLERY: $84,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetLOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS: $61,750 over 9y, 1.1% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS: $56,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $46,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTeach for America Inc: $37,200 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA COMPETES: $35,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetDALY HSA: $31,000 over 3y, 23% of budgetAVID CENTER: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALDER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: $30,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJOHN SIMON GUGGENHEIM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: $27,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetScripps College: $25,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetROOSEVELT PTA - SANTA MONICA INC: $22,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetSOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGABRIELLA CHARTER SCHOOLS: $16,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCULVER CITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $15,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetThe Panetta Institute for Public Policy: $12,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of South Florida Foundation Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LANGUAGE ACADEMY OF SACRAMENTO: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPRINCETON REACHOUT 56-81-06 INC: $10,000 over 1y, 8.5% of budgetREED INSTITUTE: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PASADENA PLAYHOUSE STATE THEATRE OF CALIFORNIA INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCity of Refuge Sacramento: $10,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetSTUDIOS FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OPERATING COMPANY: $10,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetTHE HUNTINGTON FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCAT: $8,980 over 1y, 14% of budgetHARLEM STAGE INC: $5,750 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetHOUSE OF PEACE INC: $5,200 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetPOMONA COLLEGE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRI COMMUNITY AND YOUTH AGENCY INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCHAPEL & YORK US FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGOFUNDMEORG: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPASADENA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIDYLLWILD ARTS FOUNDATION: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEDPOWERMENT INC: $3,000 over 1y, 1.5% 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 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE ACME NETWORK ↗
  • Who funds LARCHMONT SCHOOLS ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP ↗
  • Who funds THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES ↗
  • Who funds THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ROME ↗
  • Who funds LAUREL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds ISRAEL-AMERICA ACADEMIC EXCHANGE ↗
  • Who funds Society for American Archaeology ↗
  • Who funds THE GO PROJECT INC ↗
  • Who funds DANCE AND DIALOGUE ↗
  • Who funds HENRY E HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND ART GALLERY ↗

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.

California Community …The Ralph M Parsons F…The J Paul Getty TrustWeingart FoundationThe Rose Hills Founda…The Ahmanson Foundati…Elbridge Stuart Found…Kaiser Foundation Hos…The Annenberg Foundat…Perenchio FoundationJoseph Drown Foundati…The Rosalinde and Art…
California Community FoundationCA25× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: California Community Foundation · The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · The J Paul Getty Trust · Weingart Foundation · The Rose Hills Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · The Annenberg Foundation · Perenchio Foundation · Joseph Drown Foundation · The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation

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 Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of income from government
  • Reed Institute: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching?

Find your warmest path to Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching 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 150 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching’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