· Private foundation
The Robert Black Foundation Trust dated September 212018
Its FY2025 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, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k7 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| New Music on the Point | $3,000 |
| Bang on a Can | $3,000 |
| Moab Music Festival | $2,500 |
| Millay Arts Foundation | $2,500 |
| Network for New Music | $1,000 |
| Estate of Phil Niblock | $1,000 |
| Cuatro Puntos | $1,000 |
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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 51% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 18% of The Robert Black Foundation Trust dated September 212018’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 34% of the giving stays in CT; by stated purpose, 16%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +76% since the first grant, against +40% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- NMNEW MUSIC ON THE POINT INC4× · 2020–2025 · $16k · revenue +201%
- ISINTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF BASSISTS3× · 2020–2024 · $12k · revenue +219%
- BOBANG ON A CAN5× · 2021–2025 · $11k · revenue +70%
Funded once
- NBNEW BRITAIN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART INCgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $30k · revenue +40%
- AMAssociation Megave Festival Savoy Truffleone grant, 2020 · $5k
- NMNew Music Solidarity Fundone grant, 2020 · $3k
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.
To commission and perform new music
The American Chamber Ensemble is a consortium of distinguished musicians whose concerts explore the music for piano with strings, woodwinds and/or voice, presenting both great standard repertoire and living American composers.
Engage audiences of new music
New music theatre project is organized for the cultural purpose of developing new work that explores the traditional and innovative ways in which music and theatre play together. we focus on commissioning and co- producing new works of…
The purpose of CUT CIRCLE is to bring late-medieval and Renaissance music to life. Reimagining early music as a site of gritty, intense experiences, Cut Circle's performances are distinguished by their energy and emotional sensitivity.…
To present and promote contemporary classical music through innovative, interdisciplinary performances; to support living composers; and to engage diverse audiences through education, collaboration, and community-based programming.…
Present compelling chamber music performances.
Cantata Profana, Inc. (www.cantataprofana.com) is a vocal and instrumental chamber ensemble that presents concerts of classical and chamber music ranging from the Baroque to modern eras with a unique narrative style. Our purpose is to…
How this is measured
10 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. 10 of the 31 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 NEW BRITAIN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART INC ↗
- Who funds NEW MUSIC ON THE POINT INC ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF BASSISTS ↗
- Who funds BANG ON A CAN ↗
- Who funds MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds NETWORK FOR NEW MUSIC ↗
- Who funds ENSEMBLE IPSE INC ↗
- Who funds MENDELSSOHN CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA ↗
- Who funds CUATRO PUNTOS INC ↗
- Who funds Greater Hartford Arts Council 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.
Open a dossier: The Amphion Foundation Inc Co Alter Kendrick & Baron LLP · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Robert Black Foundation Trust dated September 212018 funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Robert Black Foundation Trust dated September 212018. Bigger dots raise more.
- Greater Hartford Arts Council Inc: 24% of income from government
- New Britain Museum of American Art Inc: 7% of income from government
- Cuatro Puntos Inc: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Robert Black Foundation Trust dated September 212018’s filings →