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· Private foundation

Michael Asher Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$14k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Arts & Culture$365kEnvironment$8kYouth Development$5kEmployment$3kOther$0
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $4k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$9.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
KRANNERT ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN$10,000
FRACTURED ATLAS$3,840
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 97% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%CCA WATTIS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS: $10k → 10%CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION: $5k → 14%WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $5k → 17%FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC: $5k → 20%RENAISSANCE SOCIETY: $3k → 14%KRANNERT ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN: $10k → 19%THE UNDERGROUND MUSEUM INC: $5k → 14%TOPICAL CREAM: $5k → 17%PRATT INSITUTE: $3k → 20%UNITED STATES ARTISTS: $40k → 14%CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION: $3k → 14%FRACTURED ATLAS: $4k → 17%PRIMARY INFORMATION: $10k → 20%THE UNDERGROUND MUSEUM: $5k → 14%ART RESOURCES TRANSFER: $3k → 17%PRIMARY INFORMATION: $10k → 20%CONTEMPORARY ART GROUP: $15k → 14%PARTICIPANT INC: $3k → 17%PRIMARY INFORMATION: $3k → 20%THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%ARTISTS SPACE: $3k → 17%MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVE: $5k → 14%CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (VIA COMMUNITY PARTNERS): $5k → 14%THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $5k → 14%LAXART: $5k → 14%LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVE: $5k → 14%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS: $50k → 14%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS: $15k → 14%MACHINE PROJECT: $3k → 14%INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%PROJECT X FOUNDATION: $8k → 14%INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $5k → 14%PROJECT X FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $5k → 14%EQUITABLE VITRINES: $5k → 14%EQUITABLE VITRINES: $5k → 14%MAK CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE: $5k → 14%EQUITABLE VITRINES: $3k → 14%ARMORY CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $10k → 14%FULCRUM ARTS: $8k → 14%LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: $10k → 14%LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: $5k → 14%LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: $5k → 14%LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: $5k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

62%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$241k · 11 repeat orgs$146k to everyone else

11 repeat relationships — 0 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
18

Total granted

$241k
$133k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+112%

Still filing today

82%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $14k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’24
Arts & CultureEducationOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • CI
    CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS
    2× · 2018–2019 · $65k · revenue +20%
  • IL
    ICA LA
    4× · 2017–2022 · $30k · revenue +236%
  • MA
    MUSEUM ASSOCIATES
    4× · 2017–2022 · $25k · revenue +89%

Funded once

  • United States Artists Incgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $40k · revenue +67%
  • CA
    Contemporary Art Groupgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +47%
  • CW
    CCA WATTIS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS
    one grant, 2021 · $10k

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

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
California Institute of Contemporary Art
2
Kadist Collection Manager Inc
Arts & Culture
3
Art Explorium
4
Art Foundation
Arts & Culture
5
International Contemporary Art Foundatio
Arts & Culture
6
The Florence Center for Contemporary Music
Arts & Culture
7
Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles

Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Carla) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization and publishing platform that is dedicated to providing inclusive perspectives on contemporary art. Publishing in both print and online, Carla is an…

Arts & Culture
8
Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art Inc

To promote armenian contemporary experimental art

Arts & Culture
9
New Art Association
Arts & Culture
10
Berggruen Institute
Education
11
Art Ambassador
12
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

See schedule osfmoma believes the art of our time is vital and shares it with passion and purpose, and that art and the creative process can open minds and help build a better world. for that reason, we assemble unparalleled collections,…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Artists Space Inc and the most unlike its peers is Art Resources Transfer Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 28 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number23%0%<5yr15%0%5–10yr20%28%10–20yr18%28%20–35yr11%24%35–55yr12%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value23%0%<5yr15%0%5–10yr20%23%10–20yr18%24%20–35yr11%22%35–55yr12%31%55yr+

The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/25
the rest of the field
14%
9,986/69,974

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

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

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 31 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
23/25
Grantees still filing
18/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS — $65,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTSUnited States Artists Inc — $40,000 · Arts & CultureUnited States Artists IncICA LA — $30,000 · Arts & CultureICA LAMUSEUM ASSOCIATES — $25,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM ASSOCIATESTHE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES — $25,000 · Arts & CultureTHE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELESPRIMARY INFORMATION INC — $22,500 · Arts & CulturePRIMARY INFORMATION INCSOCIETY FOR THE ACTIVATION OF SOCIAL SPACE THROUGH ART AND SOUND — $21,000 · Arts & CultureSOCIETY FOR THE ACTIVATION OF SOCIAL SPACE THROUGH ART AND SOUNDContemporary Art Group — $15,000 · Arts & CultureEQUITABLE VITRINES — $12,500 · Arts & Culture+12 more — $68,840 · Arts & Culture+12 morePROJECT X FOUNDATION — $12,500 · OtherPROJECT X FOUNDAT…CCA WATTIS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS — $10,000 · OtherCCA WATTIS INSTIT…KRANNERT ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN — $10,000 · OtherKRANNERT ART MUSE…FULCRUM ARTS — $7,500 · OtherFULCRUM ARTSCALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (VIA COMMUNITY PARTNERS) — $5,000 · OtherCALIFORNIA AFRICA…FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC — $5,000 · OtherFRANKLIN FURNACE …PROSPECT NEW ORLEANS — $5,000 · OtherPROSPECT NEW ORLE…RENAISSANCE SOCIETY — $2,500 · OtherART RESOURCES TRANSFER INC — $2,500 · OtherPRATT INSTITUTE — $2,500 · Education
Arts & Culture$324,840Other$60,000Education$2,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS — $65,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUnited States Artists Inc — $40,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetICA LA — $30,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetMUSEUM ASSOCIATES — $25,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES — $25,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPRIMARY INFORMATION INC — $22,500 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetSOCIETY FOR THE ACTIVATION OF SOCIAL SPACE THROUGH ART AND SOUND — $21,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetContemporary Art Group — $15,000 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetLOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVE — $10,000 over 2y, 8.0% of budgetTHE UNDERGROUND MUSEUM INC — $10,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetARMORY CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION — $7,500 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetFULCRUM ARTS — $7,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTOPICAL CREAM INC — $5,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMAK CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE LA — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE BRICK — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC — $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC — $3,840 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPRATT INSTITUTE — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPARTICIPANT INC — $2,500 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetARTISTS SPACE INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMachine Project — $2,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetART RESOURCES TRANSFER INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts IncNY24× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc · The Wilhelm Family Foundation Co Cascade Wilhelm · The J Paul Getty Trust · The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts · Via Art Fund Inc · Pasadena Art Alliance · Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts · Robert Rauschenberg Foundation · California Community Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Jerry & Terri Kohl Family Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Michael Asher Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%your 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
    6report 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, FY2025

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Michael Asher Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Michael Asher 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 31 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

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

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph