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Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation

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.

$290k
Granted FY2021
28
Grants FY2021
1
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Arts & Culture$3.0MEnvironment$105kEducation$92kHealth$75kCrime & Legal$75kScience & Tech$50kPublic Benefit$45kHuman Services$38kOther$0
02FY2021 · 28 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k7 grants · $45k
  • $10k–50k21 grants · $245k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$234k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE SUSTAINABILITY LABORATORY INC$25,000
QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART$25,000
SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK$15,000
SOCIETY FOR PRESERVATION OF WEEKSVILLE$10,000
JAMAICA CENTER FOR ARTS & LEARNING$10,000
PARTICIPANT INC$10,000
FRIENDS OF MATERIALS FOR THE ARTS$10,000
AIR GALLERY$10,000
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY$10,000
EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO$10,000
WORKING ARTISTS AND THE GREATER ECONOMY$10,000
MOVEMENT RESEARCH$10,000
VISUAL AIDS$10,000
NUYORICAN POETS CAFE$10,000
DANCE SERVICE NEW YORK CITY INC$10,000
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 (FY17–21, $53k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICTS NY: $15k → 20%CREATIVE CAPITAL: $25k → 17%LOISAIDA INC: $10k → 17%TANENBAUM CENTER FOR INTERRELIGIOUS UNDER: $3k → 17%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.
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.
$2.9M · 70 repeat orgs$734k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +40% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.

70 repeat relationships: 24 still active in FY2021, 46 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

70
56

Total granted

$2.9M
$704k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+40%
+17%

Still filing today

83%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21
Arts & CultureEducationEnvironmentHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • HA
    HIMALAYAN ART RESOURCES INC
    2× · 2018–2019 · $150k · revenue +83% · 29% of their budget
  • QM
    QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART
    5× · 2017–2021 · $140k · revenue +56%
  • The Laundromat Project Inc
    4× · 2017–2020 · $84k · revenue +164%

Funded once

  • IN
    INTERNEWS NETWORKgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +109%
  • CC
    CREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +37%
  • NM
    New Museum of Contemporary Art
    one grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +6%
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
The Neue Galerie New York
Arts & Culture
2
Kadist Collection Manager Inc
Arts & Culture
3
The Tank Ltd

The Tank is a small, Manhattan-based non-profit arts presenter and producer serving emerging artists. Our goal is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers or experimenting within their…

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of the City of New York

The museum of the city of new york fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world's most influential metropolis. it engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city's past, present, and…

Arts & Culture
5
Berggruen Institute
Education
6
Arts Letters and Numbers
Arts & Culture
7
On This Spot Nyc Stories of Pioneering Women Artists Inc

On this spot nyc: stories of pioneering women arists is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. it focuses on women artists, a group that continues to be marginalized. on this spot is conceived as…

Arts & Culture
8
Performance Space 122 Inc

See schedule operformance space new york is committed to promoting the arts (including performance, visual and all other contemporary arts), fostering artistic development (including through direct grants), advancing diversity in the field…

Arts & Culture
9
Artpace Inc (Audit)

Artpace san antonio is a nonprofit residency program which supports texas, national, and international artists in the creation of new art. see schedule o for continuation.

Arts & Culture
10
Harlem Arts Foundation

The Harlem Art''s Foundation''s Mission Is To Showcase And Preserve Harlem''s Tradition Of Rich Culture And Community By Working With Our Local Partners To Strategically Shape The Physical And Social Opportunities Of Our Neighborhood…

—
11
California Institute of Contemporary Art
—
12
Cuban Artists Fund Inc

The cuban artists fund is committed to supporting artists of cuban ancestry and providing the public with programs aimed at creating broader appreciation for cuban arts and its global impact both historically and in today's society.the…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Artists Space Inc; the most unlike its peers is New York University. 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

104 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. 104 of the 130 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
38
Early backer (in before they grew)
101/104
Grantees still filing
72/104
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HIMALAYAN ART RESOURCES INC: $150,000 · Arts & CultureHIMALAYAN ART RESOURCES INCQUEENS MUSEUM OF ART: $140,000 · Arts & CultureQUEENS MUSEUM OF ARTThe Laundromat Project Inc: $83,538 · Arts & CultureCREATIVE TIME INC: $80,000 · Arts & CulturePARTICIPANT INC: $75,000 · Arts & CultureGINA GIBNEY DANCE INC: $75,000 · Arts & CultureTHEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED NYC INC: $75,000 · Arts & CultureVISUAL AIDS FOR THE ARTS INC: $75,000 · Arts & Culture+57 more: $1,472,000 · Arts & Culture+57 moreFRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC: $60,000 · OtherFRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INCHOOK ARTS MEDIA INC: $55,000 · OtherHOOK ARTS MEDIA INCRECESS: $50,000 · OtherARTISTS IN RESIDENCE INC: $50,000 · OtherCCCADI: $45,000 · OtherTHE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF WEEKSVILLE & BEDFORD-STUYVESANT: $40,000 · OtherTRIANGLE ARTS ASSOCIATION: $40,000 · OtherCENTER FOR BOOK ARTS: $35,000 · OtherARTS EAST NEW YORK: $35,000 · OtherYOUNG NEW YORKERS INC: $35,000 · Other+37 more: $555,657 · Other+37 moreThe Sustainability Laboratory Inc: $50,000 · EnvironmentTHE CENTER FOR URBAN PEDAGOGY INC: $45,000 · EnvironmentWAVE HILL INCORPORATED: $15,000 · EnvironmentOSS PROJECT INC: $15,000 · EnvironmentDESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC: $10,000 · EnvironmentSOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK INC: $99,150 · Community ImprovementTHE ARAB-AMERICAN FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER INC: $25,000 · Community ImprovementBROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY: $20,000 · EducationCAVE CANEM FOUNDATION INC: $20,000 · EducationANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES: $20,000 · EducationNew York University: $10,000 · EducationINSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT NEWS: $10,000 · EducationTHE GARRISON INSTITUTE: $7,500 · EducationCREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATION: $25,000 · Human ServicesNATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICTS NY INC: $15,000 · Human ServicesLoisaida Inc: $10,000 · Human ServicesTANENBAUM CENTER FOR INTERRELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING: $2,500 · Human ServicesBROOKLYN DEFENDER SERVICES: $40,000 · Civil Rights
Arts & Culture$2,225,538Other$1,000,657Environment$135,000Community Improvement$124,150Education$87,500Human Services$52,500Civil Rights$40,000

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 budgetHIMALAYAN ART RESOURCES INC: $150,000 over 2y, 29% of budgetQUEENS MUSEUM OF ART: $140,000 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetSOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK INC: $99,150 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetThe Laundromat Project Inc: $83,538 over 4y, 2.5% of budgetCREATIVE TIME INC: $80,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetPARTICIPANT INC: $75,000 over 5y, 8.0% of budgetGINA GIBNEY DANCE INC: $75,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetTHEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED NYC INC: $75,000 over 5y, 2.9% of budgetVISUAL AIDS FOR THE ARTS INC: $75,000 over 5y, 3.2% of budgetFRIENDS OF MATERIALS FOR THE ARTS INC: $65,000 over 5y, 3.2% of budgetWORKING ARTISTS AND THE GREATER ECONOMY: $65,000 over 5y, 41% of budgetDANCING IN THE STREETS INC: $60,000 over 4y, 12% of budgetFRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC: $60,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetMore Art Inc: $55,000 over 3y, 7.9% of budgetHOOK ARTS MEDIA INC: $55,000 over 4y, 3.1% of budgetThe Bronx Museum of the Arts: $52,500 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetThe Sustainability Laboratory Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetTHE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: $50,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetARTISTS IN RESIDENCE INC: $50,000 over 4y, 5.1% of budgetCUE ART FOUNDATION: $47,500 over 5y, 1.8% of budgetHALEAKALA INC: $45,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR URBAN PEDAGOGY INC: $45,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetISSUE PROJECT ROOM INC: $45,000 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetAMIGOS DEL MUSEO DEL BARRIO INC EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO: $45,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetTHE LESLIE LOHMAN MUSEUM OF GAY AND LESBIAN ART: $45,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetFive Myles Inc: $42,500 over 5y, 8.0% of budgetBROOKLYN DEFENDER SERVICES: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF WEEKSVILLE & BEDFORD-STUYVESANT: $40,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetNEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS INC: $37,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetNO LONGER EMPTY INC: $37,500 over 2y, 9.2% of budgetNuyorican Poets Cafe Inc: $35,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMOVEMENT RESEARCH INC: $32,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetRESIDENCY UNLIMITED INC: $30,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetRUSH PHILANTHROPIC ARTS FOUNDATION INC: $30,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetAXS Lab Inc: $30,000 over 2y, 4.7% of budgetSUGAR HILL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ART AND STORYTELLING: $30,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetIFETAYO CULTURAL ARTS ACADEMY INC: $30,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetPEPATIAN INC: $27,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetWENDYS SUBWAY INC: $25,500 over 3y, 13% of budgetTHE ARAB-AMERICAN FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetINTERNEWS NETWORK: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRECESS ACTIVITIES INC: $25,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetVIBE THEATER EXPERIENCE INC: $25,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetTHE FEMINIST PRESS INC: $25,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetCREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNEW ART PUBLICATIONS INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.7% 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.

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.

The Ford FoundationLily Auchincloss Foun…The Howard Gilman Fou…The Andrew W Mellon F…The Andy Warhol Found…The Hyde and Watson F…New York Council for …Mid Atlantic Arts IncBooth Ferris Foundati…Mertz Gilmore Foundat…The Laurie M Tisch Fo…Jerome Foundation Inc
The Ford FoundationNY56.6× affinity40 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Ford Foundation · Lily Auchincloss Foundation Inc · The Howard Gilman Foundation Inc · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc · The Hyde and Watson Foundation · New York Council for the Humanities · Mid Atlantic Arts Inc · Booth Ferris Foundation Xxxxx4008 · Mertz Gilmore Foundation · The Laurie M Tisch Foundation Inc · Jerome Foundation Inc

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 Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    41report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Shelley & Donald Rubin 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 130 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2021, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Shelley & Donald Rubin’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