· Private foundation
Harpo Foundation Inc
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k18 grants · $91k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $23k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $22,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $9,000 |
| THE ASPEN INSTITUTE | $3,000 |
| APRIL BANKS | $850 |
| Individual grant recipient | $850 |
| Individual grant recipient | $850 |
| Individual grant recipient | $850 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 77% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
47 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2024, 39 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 8% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $104k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- VSVERMONT STUDIO CENTER INC3× · 2017–2020 · $36k · revenue +120%
- CACONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ST LOUIS4× · 2017–2022 · $19k · revenue +36%
- TSTHE SCULPTURE CENTER INC3× · 2020–2022 · $17k · revenue +27%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $10k
- TCThe Contemporary Arts Centerone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -34%
- TBTHE BRICKone grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue +19%
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.
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.
A center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists since 1977, which continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.
To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
to advance regional contemporary art and artists while fostering cultural equity through access to meaningful art experiences
The mission of the national academy of design is to promote the fine arts in america through exhibition and education.
Dedicated to the creation, presentation and advancement of contemporary art through its exhibitions, educational programming and studio art program.
The museum of contemporary art san diego invites all audiences to experience our world, our region, and ourselves through the prism of contemporary art.
The center for arts, design and social research is a private, nonprofit institution of higher education that provides instruction in and conducts research on the relationship of art and design to global societies. the center offers…
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 86 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 VERMONT STUDIO CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ST LOUIS ↗
- Who funds THE SCULPTURE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds The Contemporary Arts Center ↗
- Who funds THE BRICK ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds SITE SANTA FE ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc · Teiger Foundation · Via Art Fund Inc · Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Inc · Terra Foundation for American Art · The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation Inc · Jewish Communal Fund · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Harpo Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Harpo Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
- Vermont Studio Center Inc: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Harpo Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Harpo Foundation Inc 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.
Play a game based on Harpo’s filings →