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Washington · Nonprofit

Artist Trust

Artist Trust (Washington) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,101,253 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($1,147,960). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.1M
Funders on record
52
Grants received
$5.1M
Net assets
$6.3M
28/52 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 68%
01What it does

What Artist Trust does

Mission

Artist Trust supports the livelihoods of artists working in all disciplines to create a more vibrant and equitable Washington State.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

On its FY2025 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.

The needs-based Endurance Grants were intended to be a three-year program to help artists move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and through post-pandemic recovery, and the program was sunset after its final year in 2024.

Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).

  1. Artist Trust's Artist Support Programs include business practices workshops and webinars, online resources, networking and mentorship events, town halls, artist surveys, focus groups, and other programs that provide career-training and professional development opportunities for artists and help us discover and make visible issues impacting the livelihoods of artists. Over 2,800 artists and community members were served by these programs in 2025.

    $248,894 spent$7,791 earned by the program
    33% of program spending
  2. Artist Trust Fellowship Awards are unrestricted merit-based awards of $10,000 to practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and demonstrated ability. Recipients are selected through an open, competitive panel process. In 2025 there were 15 Fellowship Award recipients, including 1 Vadon Foundation Fellowship Award for Native Artists, 1 Fellowship Award for Black Artists, 1 Greg Kucera & Larry Yocom Fellowship Award, and 1 Lillian Miller Foundation Fellowship Award for Trans* and Indigiqueer Artists.

    $195,959 spentof which $150,000 as grants
    26% of program spending
  3. Other Grant Programs include the unrestricted merit-based Arts Innovator Awards of $25,000 given to 2 artists and $500 given to 6 additional finalists, Twining Humber Lifetime Achievement Award of $10,000 given to 1 artist, the Support Old Lady Artists (SOLA) Award of $5,000 given to 5 artists, and other activities to administer Artist Trust's grant programs; all recipients are selected through an open, competitive panel process.

    $155,338 spentof which $88,000 as grants
    21% of program spending
  4. Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) are unrestricted project-based grants of $1,500 for artists working in all disciplines across Washington State. Recipients are selected through an open, competitive panel process. There were 65 GAP recipients in 2025.

    $150,138 spentof which $97,500 as grants
    20% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $750,329.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.6M) Expenses 100 ($1.2M) Net assets 100 ($3.7M)2018 Revenue 107 ($1.7M) Expenses 98 ($1.2M) Net assets 114 ($4.2M)2019 Revenue 80 ($1.3M) Expenses 97 ($1.2M) Net assets 126 ($4.6M)2020 Revenue 132 ($2.1M) Expenses 140 ($1.7M) Net assets 144 ($5.3M)2021 Revenue 107 ($1.7M) Expenses 109 ($1.3M) Net assets 160 ($5.9M)2022 Revenue 62 ($1.0M) Expenses 102 ($1.2M) Net assets 137 ($5.0M)2023 Revenue 63 ($1.0M) Expenses 111 ($1.3M) Net assets 136 ($5.0M)2024 Revenue 78 ($1.3M) Expenses 104 ($1.3M) Net assets 139 ($5.1M)2025 Revenue 130 ($2.1M) Expenses 97 ($1.2M) Net assets 173 ($6.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (130)Expenses (97)Net assets (173)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $5.2M to $6.5M (+24%).

$3.9M
$4.4M
$4.8M
$5.5M
$6.0M
$5.2M
$5.1M
$5.2M
$6.5M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2019 6% · 2020 11% · 2021 11% · 2022 14% · 2023 8% · 2024 8% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

106% of Artist Trust’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,377 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$394k
’17
$535k
’18
$109k
’19
$428k
’20
$405k
’21
−$232k
’22
−$323k
’23
−$7k
’24
$921k
’25
20
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed282828242017192725
Joined·+2+7+2+6+2+6+10+5
No longer listed·276105427
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $267k → $537k.

10 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Artist Trust’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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

Artist Trust has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

53% 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 Artist Trust.

23%
largest funder
44%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 52% · 2019 40% · 2020 17% · 2021 21% · 2022 20% · 2023 19% — 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

46% of Artist Trust's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

69% of Artist Trust's grant income comes from Washington funders.

VT
WA
MN
IL
WI
CT
CA
MD
DE
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Artist Trust runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin44% · top quartile
Months of reserve20.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding Artist Trust receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $155k on record.

Federal$155k
grants $155kcontracts $0
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$155k

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 Artist Trust

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 Washington

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

64% of spending goes to programs.

Program 64%Management 18%Fundraising 18%

Governance

20
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

84%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Artist Trust: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Artist Trust?
Artist Trust (Washington) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,101,253 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($1,147,960). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Artist Trust have?
IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $5,101,253 in grants to Artist Trust, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Artist Trust?
SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,147,960 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Artist Trust find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Artist →

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 52 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