New York · Nonprofit
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 152 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,234,398 to it, the largest being BECKY AND BOB ALEXANDER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,250,000). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.1M
- Funders on record
- 152
- Grants received
- $9.2M
- Net assets
- $17M
What American Folk Art Museum does
Mission
Founded in 1961 the American Folk Art Museum is the nations museum of folk and self-taught artists. Candid genuine and unexpected. Afam celebrates the creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined through personal experience rather than formal artistic training with a collection spanning 7,500 works of art from four centuries and nearly every continent the museum engages people of all backgrounds through its collections exhibitions publications and public programs as the leading forum shaping the understanding and appreciation of folk and self-taught art thanks to the generous support of our member patrons and donors admission is always free.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibitions and collections - development and presentation of exhibitions and programs that present new ideas artists and artworks that shape and define the field of folk art and work of self-taught artists. The museum also maintains and preserves a comprehensive collection of more that 7,000 objects; loans artworks to other institutions; organizes traveling exhibitions and makes its collection available for study.
$1,169,994 spent$242,876 earned by the program29% of program spendingMuseum gift shop and e-commerce platform makes merchandise available to the public including hand-made items artistic reproductions and publications that reflect the mission and vision of the museum.
$563,014 spent$574,340 earned by the program14% of program spendingEducation programs that benefit pre-k through 12th grade students with single class visits; museum-school partnerships; teen docent programs and summer camp programs; monthly family programs hands on workshops for adults weekly music events programs for seniors with alzheimers disease tours for blind and vistors with low vision a year-long paid internship for laguardia community college students professional development workshops for nyc teachers and open houses for teachers and school administrators; an educational library and study center for the benefit of scholars and researchers and the general public by appointment; and adult programs that serve life-long learners with a robust program of lectures films docent tours symposia and special events.
$354,115 spent$82,339 earned by the program9% of program spendingSupport services
$1,909,391 spent48% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,996,514.
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 2022 to 2023, from $12M to $17M (+44%).
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: 2017 11% · 2018 11% · 2019 10% · 2020 19% · 2021 30% · 2022 14% · 2023 4% · 2024 6% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
48% of AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 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
Jason T Busch
Director and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 63 funders, grant income rose $687k → $1.6M.
13 of 152 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 152 funders by total. 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
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
26% 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 AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 50% · 2019 14% · 2020 13% · 2021 50% · 2022 39% · 2023 33% — 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.
How long its funders stay
33% of AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
52% of AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM has grown faster than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.2M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$560k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$541k
- National Endowment for the Arts$118k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: 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 AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM?
- AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 152 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,234,398 to it, the largest being BECKY AND BOB ALEXANDER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,250,000). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 152 organizations giving $9,234,398 in grants to AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM, 92 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM?
- BECKY AND BOB ALEXANDER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM 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 American Folk Art Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 152 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing