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· Public charity

New England Foundation for the Arts Incorporated

Nefa invests in artists and communities and fosters equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape in new england and the nation.

$7.4M
Granted FY2025still arriving
219
Grants FY2025still arriving
33
States reached
$218k
Largest
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.

Arts & Culture$29MEducation$2.9MCommunity Improvement$794kPublic Benefit$394kYouth Development$358kHuman Services$268kPhilanthropy$223kCivil Rights$167kOther$0
02FY2025 · 219 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 219 grants below total $5,396,020, the rows itemized in this filing. The $7,442,824 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $2,046,804 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k50 grants · $341k
  • $10k–50k132 grants · $2.2M
  • $50k–250k37 grants · $2.9M
$13,500
Median grant
33
States reached
$40M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PRODUCER HUB INC$217,656
PERFORMANCE ZONE INC$190,169
FRACTURED ATLAS INC$166,250
FOUNDATION FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS$133,313
DANCERS GROUP$113,750
LABORATORIO ARTS INC$91,400
LAKE PLACID ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC DRAMA & ART$81,750
EMMANUEL GOSPEL CENTER INC$78,475
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATER FESTIVAL$71,750
BETH MORRISON PROJECTS INC$71,313
EDUCATIONAL CENTER FOR ARTS AND SCIENCES$70,000
CNTR LLC$70,000
KHMER MAINE$70,000
NUEVA ESPERANZA INC$70,000
WABANAKI CULTURAL PRESERVATION COALITION$70,000
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 (FY17–25, $815k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 77% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WORKING NARRATIVES: $67k → 12%NARRATIVE ARTS: $24k → 12%QUEEN ANN NZINGA CENTER INC: $25k → 11%KHMER MAINE: $70k → 7%QUEEN ANN NZINGA CENTER INC: $22k → 11%QUEEN ANN NZINGA CENTER INC: $15k → 11%WORKING NARRATIVES: $9k → 12%MAYO STREET ARTS: $21k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $15k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $14k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $13k → 7%PRODUCER HUB INC: $218k → 17%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER: $20k → 16%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC: $15k → 16%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER: $15k → 16%COMMUNITY ART CENTER INC: $17k → 8%THE COMMUNITY ART CENTER INC: $16k → 8%COMMUNITY ART CENTER: $14k → 8%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC: $12k → 16%COMMUNITY ART CENTER: $6k → 8%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC: $8k → 16%BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC: $8k → 16%MAVERICK LANDING COMMUNITY SERVICES: $15k → 16%GLOBALFEST INC: $18k → 17%GLOBALFEST INC: $15k → 17%GLOBALFEST INC: $15k → 17%URBANO PROJECT INC: $25k → 16%URBANO PROJECT INC: $17k → 16%URBANO PROJECT INC: $10k → 16%HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT - ABRONS ART CENTER: $21k → 17%URBANO PROJECT: $35k → 16%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

AK
ME
VT
NH
WA
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
WY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
KY
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
LA
AL
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.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$27M · 358 repeat orgs$7.0M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against +15% for those funded once.

358 repeat relationships: 138 still active in FY2025, 220 since wound down; 78 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

358
321

Total granted

$27M
$4.8M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+15%

Still filing today

88%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.2M 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
Arts & CultureEducationCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • FRACTURED ATLAS INC
    8× · 2017–2025 · $804k · revenue +71%
  • DG
    DANCERS GROUP
    7× · 2019–2025 · $483k · revenue +77%
  • TP
    THE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $431k · revenue +16%

Funded once

  • DG
    DANCING GROUNDSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $73k · revenue +95%
  • WT
    WACO THEATER CENTER
    one grant, 2019 · $72k · revenue -91%
  • RP
    RADAR PRODUCTIONS INC
    one grant, 2021 · $70k · revenue 0% · 28% of their budget
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
Los Angeles International Dance Festival
—
2
New Dance Alliance Inc

New Dance Alliance is a performing arts nonprofit. Our mission, from the earliest days, has been to support experimental movement-based artists. In recent years, we have shifted our focus, making an explicit commitment to equity and…

—
3
The Center for International Theatre Development
Arts & Culture
4
State of the Arts Productions
Arts & Culture
5
The Studio Theatre Inc

Studio Theatre produces exceptional contemporary theatre in deliberately intimate spaces, fostering a more thoughtful, more empathetic, and more connected community, in Washington DC and beyond.

Arts & Culture
6
Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists repertory theatre's mission is to produce intimate, provacative theatre and provide a home for a diverse community of artists and audiences to take creative risks.

Arts & Culture
7
Tigerlion Arts
Arts & Culture
8
Balletx

Balletx expands the vocabulary of contemporary ballet for all audiences through innovative performances, world premiere choreography, dance education, and community programs.

Arts & Culture
9
En Garde Arts Inc

To produce bold theatre experiences that reach across artistic, physical and social boundries. We aim to increase empathy and open-mindedness by illuminating nuanced perspectives and unspoken truths behind the salient issues of our time.…

Arts & Culture
10
Staretthe Directors Company Inc

The Directors Company is an award-winning not-for-profit theatre company with an extraordinary record in its mission to develop and produce groundbreaking new plays and musicals initiated and generated by outstanding directorial talent,…

Arts & Culture
11
Theater Mu Incorporated

Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.

Arts & Culture
12
The Brick Theater Inc

Production of original theater at its Brooklyn, NY space.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Works and Process Inc; the most unlike its peers is Fathomers. 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

628 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. 628 of the 766 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.

43
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
161
Early backer (in before they grew)
613/628
Grantees still filing
401/628
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $804,258 · Arts & Culture+139 more: $16,900,997 · Arts & Culture+139 moreTHE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC: $430,669 · OtherTHE PERFORMANCE Z…ON THE BOARDS: $213,687 · OtherON THE BOARDSW O R X WORKS OF RAPHAEL XAVIER INC: $165,626 · OtherDOUBLE EDGE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS INC: $162,125 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: $146,885 · OtherNIKKEI FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND REDRESS: $134,875 · Other+31 more: $2,502,529 · Other+31 morePRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE: $278,132 · EducationEMERSON COLLEGE: $185,151 · EducationWESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $163,109 · EducationTrustees of Dartmouth College: $146,342 · EducationCAPE FEAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $104,000 · EducationColumbia College Chicago: $94,200 · EducationHelen Simoneau Danse Inc: $86,625 · EducationCONNECTICUT COLLEGE: $83,930 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Middlebury College: $78,540 · EducationMASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC: $71,900 · EducationPINKERTON ACADEMY: $69,583 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS: $62,900 · EducationPRODUCER HUB INC: $217,656 · Human ServicesNARRATIVE ARTS: $99,875 · Human ServicesURBANO PROJECT INC: $87,000 · Human ServicesBOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC: $78,150 · Human ServicesKhmer Maine: $70,000 · Human ServicesMAYO STREET ARTS: $63,963 · Human ServicesQUEEN ANN NZINGA CENTER INC: $62,400 · Human ServicesINNER-CITY MUSLIM ACTION NETWORK: $116,925 · Community ImprovementFREE CENTER INCORPORATED: $70,000 · Community ImprovementTwo Chairs Inc: $89,380 · InternationalYOUTH SPEAKS INC: $80,736 · Youth Development
Arts & Culture$17,705,255Other$3,756,396Education$1,424,412Human Services$679,044Community Improvement$186,925International$89,380Youth Development$80,736

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $804,258 over 8y, 0.9% of budgetDANCERS GROUP: $483,000 over 7y, 4.2% of budgetTHE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC: $430,669 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetIntersection for the Arts: $418,158 over 7y, 2.7% of budgetTHE TANK LTD: $406,500 over 5y, 12% of budgetNATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK INC: $399,618 over 8y, 3.9% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS INC: $353,126 over 6y, 8.7% of budgetDANCE PLACE: $345,083 over 8y, 4.2% of budgetHEADLONG DANCE THEATER INC: $288,535 over 5y, 40% of budgetPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE: $278,132 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK LIVE ARTS INC: $277,875 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetLOS ANGELES PERFORMANCE PRACTICE: $265,330 over 6y, 12% of budgetFIRSTWORKS: $263,724 over 9y, 6.2% of budgetTHE YARD INC: $253,727 over 9y, 6.7% of budgetUNIQUE PROJECTS INC: $245,438 over 4y, 24% of budgetJOYCE THEATER FOUNDATION INC: $243,325 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetDANCE WORKS INC: $222,125 over 3y, 8.4% of budgetTEADA PRODUCTIONS: $219,126 over 6y, 32% of budgetJACOB'S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL INC: $218,684 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetON THE BOARDS: $213,687 over 4y, 7.9% of budgetANANYA DANCE THEATRE: $196,250 over 4y, 17% of budgetFUSE BOX AUSTIN: $190,000 over 5y, 7.3% of budgetPORTLAND OVATIONS: $187,476 over 9y, 1.8% of budgetCircuit Network: $186,700 over 4y, 39% of budgetBROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE INC: $185,500 over 6y, 3.3% of budgetEMERSON COLLEGE: $185,151 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetSANDGLASS CENTER FOR PUPPETRY & THEATER RESEARCH LTD: $178,922 over 9y, 9.8% of budgetPORTLAND INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART: $176,250 over 7y, 3.5% of budgetSPACE Gallery: $175,942 over 7y, 7.9% of budgetTHE THEATER OFFENSIVE INC: $167,010 over 5y, 3.2% of budgetWESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $163,109 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetDANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM INC: $162,875 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetDOUBLE EDGE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS INC: $162,125 over 6y, 5.0% of budgetEverett: $156,375 over 5y, 19% of budgetHONOLULU THEATRE FOR YOUTH: $152,470 over 5y, 3.3% of budgetCOMMUNITY THEATER PROJECT CORPORATION: $150,206 over 5y, 4.4% of budgetProject Bandaloop: $148,750 over 4y, 4.0% of budgetART2ACTION INC: $147,143 over 4y, 23% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $146,342 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetContemporary Arts Center: $139,404 over 5y, 3.0% of budgetFLYNN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS LTD: $138,581 over 7y, 0.6% of budgetFLYAWAY PRODUCTIONS: $137,875 over 3y, 17% of budgetWorld Music Inc: $135,250 over 8y, 2.1% of budgetNIKKEI FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND REDRESS: $134,875 over 4y, 92% of budgetFRESH MEAT PRODUCTIONS: $133,625 over 4y, 8.2% of budgetLadies of Hip-Hop Festival: $133,000 over 3y, 19% of budgetARTHUR AVILES TYPICAL THEATRE INC: $132,938 over 4y, 2.7% of budgetU B W INC A/K/A URBAN BUSH WOMEN INC: $130,500 over 4y, 3.4% 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 FRACTURED ATLAS INC ↗
  • Who funds DANCERS GROUP ↗
  • Who funds THE PERFORMANCE ZONE INC ↗
  • Who funds Intersection for the Arts ↗
  • Who funds THE TANK LTD ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK INC ↗
  • Who funds FOUNDATION FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS INC ↗
  • Who funds DANCE PLACE ↗
  • Who funds HEADLONG DANCE THEATER INC ↗
  • Who funds PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds NEW YORK LIVE ARTS INC ↗
  • Who funds LOS ANGELES PERFORMANCE PRACTICE ↗
  • Who funds FIRSTWORKS ↗
  • Who funds THE YARD INC ↗
  • Who funds UNIQUE PROJECTS INC ↗
  • Who funds JOYCE THEATER FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds DANCE WORKS INC ↗
  • Who funds TEADA PRODUCTIONS ↗
  • Who funds JACOB'S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL INC ↗
  • Who funds PRODUCER HUB INC ↗
  • Who funds ON THE BOARDS ↗
  • Who funds ANANYA DANCE THEATRE ↗
  • Who funds FUSE BOX AUSTIN ↗
  • Who funds PORTLAND OVATIONS ↗
  • Who funds Circuit Network ↗
  • Who funds BROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE INC ↗
  • Who funds EMERSON COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds SANDGLASS CENTER FOR PUPPETRY & THEATER RESEARCH LTD ↗
  • Who funds PORTLAND INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
  • Who funds SPACE Gallery ↗
  • Who funds THE THEATER OFFENSIVE INC ↗
  • Who funds WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM INC ↗
  • Who funds DOUBLE EDGE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS INC ↗
  • Who funds Everett ↗
  • Who funds HONOLULU THEATRE FOR YOUTH ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY THEATER PROJECT CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds Project Bandaloop ↗
  • Who funds ART2ACTION INC ↗

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.

National Performance Network IncLA135.9× affinity78 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Performance Network Inc · The Map Fund Inc · Mid Atlantic Arts Inc · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Inc · The Howard Gilman Foundation Inc · The Shubert Foundation Inc · The Harkness Foundation for Dance Inc · Barr Foundation · New Music USA Inc · Association of Performing Arts Professionals · Mertz Gilmore 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 New England Foundation for the Arts Incorporated funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from New England Foundation for the Arts Incorporated. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Ko Theater Works Inc: 85% of income from government
  • Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center Inc: 38% of income from government
  • The Artists Collective Inc: 35% of income from government
  • The Yard Inc: 28% of income from government
  • Community Art Center Inc: 14% of income from government
  • Urbano Project Inc: 11% of income from government
  • Clemmons Family Farm Inc: 9% of income from government
  • Portland Institute for Contemporary Art: 5% of income from government
  • Veronica Robles Cultural Center: 5% of income from government
  • World Music Inc: 5% of income from government
  • Puppet Showplace Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Queen Ann Nzinga Center Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbor Inc: 2% of income from government
  • The Theater Offensive Inc: 2% of income from government
  • The New Dance Complex Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Double Edge Theatre Productions Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Abilities Dance Inc: 1% of income from government
  • New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas Inc: 1% of income from government
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc: 1% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Middlebury College: 1% of income from government
  • Wesleyan University: 1% of income from government
  • Fairfield University: 1% of income from government
  • Nueva Esperanza Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Jean Appolon Expressions Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Ltd: 0% of income from government
  • Connecticut College: 0% of income from government
  • Emerson College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
59report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
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.

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 766 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 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

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