Does Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation, The Francis Family Foundation, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

Foundation Dossiers

Missouri · Private foundation

Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.7M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 75
Grants FY2025: 52
Organizations funded FY2024: 6%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $15,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $300,000
Organizations funded a year: 48 to 57; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 2
Total assets, FY2025: $52M
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 6% of the organizations Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $29k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureEducationPhilanthropyHealthOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	55	$2.7M	9%
FY2024	52	$2.6M	6%
FY2023	56	$2.9M	11%
FY2022	56	$2.8M	13%
FY2021	57	$2.6M	19%
FY2020	48	$2.5M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$15MEducation$617kRecreation & Sports$220kPhilanthropy$200kHuman Services$37kInternational$10k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Lyric Opera of Kansas City Inc	$4,050,000	6	15%
Kansas City Symphony	$2,145,000	6	2%
Kansas City Ballet Association	$907,500	6	2%
Kansas City Art Institute	$781,667	6	1%
The Nelson Gallery Foundation	$597,640	6	1%
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts	$512,500	6	1%
Kansas City Repertory Theatre Inc	$500,000	6	3%
Performing Arts Foundation of Kansas City	$424,437	6	10%
Park University	$352,500	6	0%
Charlotte Street Foundation	$283,500	6	4%

Show all 62 grantees

All grantees of Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Lyric Opera of Kansas City Inc	$4,050,000	6	15%
Kansas City Symphony	$2,145,000	6	2%
Kansas City Ballet Association	$907,500	6	2%
Kansas City Art Institute	$781,667	6	1%
The Nelson Gallery Foundation	$597,640	6	1%
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts	$512,500	6	1%
Kansas City Repertory Theatre Inc	$500,000	6	3%
Performing Arts Foundation of Kansas City	$424,437	6	10%
Park University	$352,500	6	0%
Charlotte Street Foundation	$283,500	6	4%
Unicorn Theatre	$255,000	6	9%
Starlight Theatre Association of Kansas City Inc	$225,000	3	1%
Kansas City Chorale	$220,000	6	22%
Englewood Arts	$220,000	4	12%
The Coterie Inc	$215,000	6	4%
Kansas City Young Audiences Inc	$200,000	6	4%
Kansas City Actors Theatre Inc	$190,000	6	12%
The Youth Symphony Association	$174,000	6	7%
Arts Engagement Foundation of Kansas City	$160,000	6	4%
Kemper Museum Operating Foundation	$135,000	6	1%
Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey	$128,491	6	2%
The Studios Inc	$120,000	4	18%
Heart of America Shakespeare Festival	$114,000	6	3%
Metropolitan Arts Council of Greater Kansas City	$110,000	5	2%
Owen Cox Dance Group	$106,000	6	12%
The Friends of Chamber Music	$105,000	5	4%
Music-Arts Institute	$99,000	6	5%
Musical Theater Heritage Inc	$97,000	6	2%
Heartland Mens Chorus	$90,000	6	3%
Johnson County Community College Foundation	$83,000	6	0%
Mid-America Arts Alliance	$72,500	5	1%
Kansas City Public Library	$70,714	2	n/a
Wylliams-Henry Productions	$70,000	6	35%
Northeast Community Center	$69,084	6	2%
Bach Aria Soloists Inc	$63,000	6	10%
Kansas City Jazz Orchestra	$57,500	6	5%
Union Station Kansas City Inc	$50,000	1	0%
Summerfest Concerts And-Or Recordings Inc	$37,500	5	17%
Ensemble Iberica Inc	$36,500	6	7%
Spinning Tree Theatre	$36,000	6	11%
Heartland Chamber Music LTD	$34,000	6	4%
Spire Chamber Ensemble	$34,000	6	6%
Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City	$27,500	3	6%
Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City	$27,000	5	0%
The Rabbit Hole Kc	$25,000	1	1%
The Art in the Loop Foundation	$25,000	6	8%
Mesner Puppet Theater	$24,000	3	2%
Art as Mentorship Inc	$20,000	3	1%
Te Deum Inc	$18,500	6	5%
Do Good Productions Inc	$15,000	1	n/a
Youth Chorus of Kansas City Inc	$15,000	3	3%
Pembroke Hill School	$13,500	1	0%
City In Motion Dance Theater City In Motion Dance Theater	$13,000	4	6%
The Harry S Truman Library Institute National and International Affairs	$12,600	1	0%
The Mary Atkins Trust	$12,000	1	18%
Mattie Rhodes Memorial Society D/B/A Mattie Rhodes Center	$10,000	1	0%
Japan America Society Ltd	$10,000	4	9%
Quality Hill Productions	$10,000	1	3%
Interurban Arthouse	$10,000	2	1%
Kansas City Jazz Alive	$5,000	1	4%
Friends of the Opus 76 Quartet	$3,000	1	n/a
Kansas City Baroque Consortium	$2,000	1	2%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 18 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.5M), not named here.

Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 59 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 59.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family FoundationMO103.1× affinity47 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation · The Francis Family Foundation · Greater Kansas City Community Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City · Metropolitan Arts Council of Greater Kansas City · The H & R Block Foundation · Copaken Family Foundation · The Sunderland Foundation · William T Kemper Foundation Commerce Bank Trustee · The Estelle S and Robert a Long Ellis Foundation · Miller-Mellor Association · R a Long Foundation 600 Plaza West Bldg

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.

Compare Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee with peer funders

About Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee

How much does Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee give?: Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee reported 75 grants totaling $2,732,077 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 48 and 57 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (93%), Education (4%), Recreation & Sports (1%).
Who are Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Lyric Opera of Kansas City Inc ($4.0M), Kansas City Symphony ($2.1M), Kansas City Ballet Association ($908k).
Does Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 6% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation, The Francis Family Foundation, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
Where is Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee based?: Richard J Stern Foundation for the Arts Commerce Bank Trustee is based in MO.