Louisiana · Nonprofit
Arts Council of New Orleans
Arts Council of New Orleans (Louisiana) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,143,734 to it, the largest being The Helis Foundation ($410,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Arts Council of New Orleans does
Mission
The Arts Council of New Orleans dba Arts New Orleans is a private, nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status dedicated to supporting arts and culture in the city.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Percent for Art: Begun in 1986, the NOLA percent for Art program is the City of New Orleans public art collection. PFA places original works by local artists throughout city-operated public spaces, everywhere from branch libraries to City Hall to recreational centers to neutral grounds. There are currently more than 400 PFA artworks enlivening our citys landscape, representing the creativity and strength of the artists who make New Orleans unlike any other city in the world. Funded by 1.5% of eligible projects, PFA supports local artists through commissions, exhibitions, direct purchases, community outreach, and education.
$849,765 spent29% of program spendingGrantmaking: Arts New Orleans believes that all citizens should be able to participate in a creative life and that the arts drive a vibrant and equitable community. All people, their culture, and their art contribute to the meaning and understanding of our humanity and should be honored and celebrated. We are proud of the broad range of arts and cultural activities supported by the Community Arts Grants program made possible by the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana Project Grants made possible by the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the State of Louisiana.
$613,230 spentof which $563,415 as grants21% of program spendingLUNA FETE: LUNA Fete is New Orleans annual festival of light, art, and technology and the nations longest running projection mapping festival. LUNA Fete is a visionary initiative created by Arts New Orleans to demonstrate the power of art to transform communities. This free and open to the public festival celebrates New Orleans creative industries and provides a memorable experience for more than 100,000 diverse event attendees.
$593,981 spent20% of program spendingYoung Artist Movement: YAM is an arts education and workforce development program that beautifies neighborhoods and connects youth to their communities through public art and placemaking, with a strong community focus and a justice arm supporting youth impacted by the juvenile justice system. We provide meaningful paid work and creative opportunities that empower young people to imagine and inspire positive change
$653,595 spent22% of program spendingPUBLIC ART: We are the support system of public art and placemaking. Public art adds significant value to our city, and our work ranges from producing large-scale murals to partnering with artists and residents to create public projects that strengthen community connection.
$165,191 spent6% of program spendingArts Market: Consistently recognized as New Orleans best arts market by Gambit Weeklys reader polls, the Arts Market New Orleans is the regions largest juried fine arts and crafts market. Celebrating 18 years the twice-monthly open-air market has provided local artists with a steady platform to showcase artworks, test new products, and refine their craft to attract new consumers and increase sales.
$97,236 spent3% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,972,998.
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 $1.8M to $7.1M (+295%).
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: 2018 55% · 2019 52% · 2020 8% · 2021 27% · 2023 9% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of Arts Council of New Orleans’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Nyka Scott
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $25k → $38k.
4 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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: $950k from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Greater New Orleans Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Arts Council of New Orleans raised.
From the IRS filings of Arts Council of New Orleans’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
Arts Council of New Orleans leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
36% 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 Arts Council of New Orleans.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 80% · 2019 46% · 2020 38% · 2021 74% · 2022 53% · 2023 67% — 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
23% of Arts Council of New Orleans's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 32% 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
98% of Arts Council of New Orleans's grant income comes from Louisiana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $400k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Arts Council of New Orleans runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Arts Council of New Orleans receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.6M on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$1.6M
- Department of the Interior$25k
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 Arts Council of New Orleans
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 Louisiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 Arts Council of New Orleans: 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 Arts Council of New Orleans?
- Arts Council of New Orleans (Louisiana) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,143,734 to it, the largest being The Helis Foundation ($410,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Arts Council of New Orleans have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,143,734 in grants to Arts Council of New Orleans, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Arts Council of New Orleans?
- The Helis Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $410,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Arts Council of New Orleans find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Louisiana. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 19 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