New York · Nonprofit
Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc
Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc (New York) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,620 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($5,003). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $432k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $6k
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc does
Mission
The purpose of this foundation is to teach aesthetic realism, the philosophy founded in 1941 by eli siegel, american poet, critic, and educator; knowledge that explains the relation of life and art, and meets the need of people everywhere to see reality fairly.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Aesthetic realism courses and classes: aesthetic realism classes and semester courses, including poetry, anthropology, marriage, music, the visual arts, education, and history. In each class students see how the subject, in all its richness, is a making one of the opposites that are present in all art and reality, and that people are trying to put together in themselves. Total attendance: 1,969
$160,445 spent$123,443 earned by the program42% of program spendingTerrain gallery: exhibitions of contemporary paintings, drawings, prints, and photography based on the aesthetic realism principle: "all beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." total attendance: 817
$32,214 spent$2,855 earned by the program9% of program spendingAesthetic realism consultations: men and women study the principles of aesthetic realism which show the relation of their individual life questions to the arts and the world they are in, making for greater kindness and self-respect. Expenses include salaries of consultants, partial salary of a coordinator, equipment, maintenance, and office supplies. Total attendance: 133.
$14,819 spent$6,650 earned by the program4% of program spendingPresentations: public seminars and dramatic and musical presentations, all based on the principles of aesthetic realism. Seminars include such subjects as love, ambition, parenting; groundbreaking talks by artists and scholars on this new way of seeing the arts, people, and reality itself. The aesthetic realism theatre company offers pioneering musical and dramatic productions, from shakespeare to rock 'n' roll, with performance and comment.
$103,677 spent27% of program spendingOutreach program: the foundation's outreach program includes workshops for seniors; for children at schools and youth centers; dramatic and musical performances by the aesthetic realism theatre company; talks on subjects from anthropology to jazz, architecture, and the arts, for people of all ages. Total attendance: 1,112
$37,722 spent$1,012 earned by the program10% of program spendingThe right of aesthetic realism to be known (tro): biweekly international periodical of the aesthetic realism foundation, published since 1973. It presents essays, poems, and lectures by eli siegel and articles by aesthetic realism teachers and associates. In every issue there is an editorial commentary by ellen reiss, chair of education. Total circulation: 116,934
$28,683 spent8% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $377,560.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $4.3M to $3.8M (−11%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
44% of Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Margot Carpenter
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $5k → $112.
2 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $540k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Eli Siegel-Martha Baird Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 89% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 97% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
100% of Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc's revenue fell 17% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Eli Siegel-Martha Baird Foundation Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc?
- Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc (New York) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,620 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($5,003). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $5,620 in grants to Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc?
- PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND is the largest funder on record, with $5,003 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Aesthetic Realism Foundation Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Aesthetic Realism →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 2 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing