California · Nonprofit
Arhoolie Foundation
Arhoolie Foundation (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,930,298 to it, the largest being SAGE FOUNDATION ($2,100,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Arhoolie Foundation does
Mission
Our mission is to document and celebrate blues, Cajun, zydeco, gospel, jazz, Tejano/Norteo, old-time, and other tradition-based styles of music through archival preservation, exhibits, community and educational outreach, live performance, and direct support to artists. By our activities, we seek to broaden public awareness of our diverse music history, support the vitality of living traditions, and reinforce the value and sustainability of community-based cultures.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
New LLC member 50% owner, purchased the building in May 2025.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Down Home Building: The Arhoolie Foundation is a controlling member of 10341 San Pablo Ave LLC, a building that houses four cultural non-profit organizations: the Arhoolie Foundation, Les Blank Films, Source Light, and Down Home Music Foundation. Together, the Arhoolie Foundation and Source Light leadership and staff manage the building and produce free public events there featuring music and film.
$385,471 spentof which $375,000 as grants47% of program spendingAcquiring, archiving, preserving, curating, and creating equitable public access to various collections of audio recordings, photographs, film, video, papers, posters, and other archival materials documenting blues, Cajun, zydeco, gospel, jazz, and other tradition based styles of music. We maintain a physical and digital online archive.
$166,223 spent$1,013 earned by the program20% of program spendingStrachwitz Archive: Cataloging, preserving, digitizing, and curating various collections gathered by Chris Strachwitz and related to his life's work documenting American roots music: photographs, videos, audio recordings, posters, papers, etc.
$163,918 spent$2,790 earned by the program20% of program spendingEmerging Projects:Barbara Dane -- Fiscal sponsor for a documentary film being made about this local jazz and blues singer.
$97,686 spent12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $813,298.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.5M to $2.7M (+74%).
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 21% · 2018 23% · 2020 15% · 2021 22% · 2022 10% · 2023 25% · 2024 1% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Arhoolie Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $253k → $511k.
4 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 Arhoolie Foundation’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
Arhoolie Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 95% · 2019 88% · 2020 60% · 2021 56% · 2022 92% · 2023 78% — diversifying over time.
“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
36% of Arhoolie Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
Arhoolie Foundation draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $171k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Arhoolie Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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 Arhoolie Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $559k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$329k
- National Endowment for the Arts$130k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$101k
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 Arhoolie Foundation
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
40%
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
- 10341 San Pablo LLC · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Arhoolie Foundation: 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 Arhoolie Foundation?
- Arhoolie Foundation (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,930,298 to it, the largest being SAGE FOUNDATION ($2,100,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Arhoolie Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $2,930,298 in grants to Arhoolie Foundation, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Arhoolie Foundation?
- SAGE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Arhoolie Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 17 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