New York · Nonprofit
CITY LORE INC
CITY LORE INC (New York) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,754,236 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,350,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What City Lore Inc does
Mission
City lore's mission is to foster new york city - and america's - living cultural heritage through education and public programs. We document, present and advocate for new york city's grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We work in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as new york city itself.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2023, city lore continued to further its mission to foster new york city and america's living cultural heritage through education and public programs. Our in-school programs were in full gear. Together we reached over 9,500 public school students with long term arts residencies, which included: from homer to hip hop which introduced school students to spoken word poetry, and artist/master teacher program offering professional development for teachers. Urban explorers allowed a group of 25 underserved students to research and tell stories of the city's different communities. The city lore gallery featured the exhibitions, the calling: the transformative power of african american doll and puppet making and the j'ouvert immersive experience about the trinidadian carnival tradition. More than 6,000 persons attended.
$2,888,462 spent$360,402 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,888,462.
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 $2.0M to $4.0M (+104%).
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 38% · 2018 16% · 2019 28% · 2020 28% · 2021 23% · 2022 28% · 2023 22% · 2024 34%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of CITY LORE INC’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. 4 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
Henry Chalfant
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $985k → $1.4M.
11 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 CITY LORE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 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
CITY LORE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 47% · 2019 36% · 2020 16% · 2021 30% · 2022 28% · 2023 18% — 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
32% of CITY LORE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
65% of CITY LORE INC'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. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
CITY LORE INC's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 18 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding CITY LORE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.9M on record — $4.9M federal, $554 state.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$3.9M
- National Endowment for the Arts$563k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$425k
- GRANT IN AID$554
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 CITY LORE 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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 CITY LORE 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 CITY LORE INC?
- CITY LORE INC (New York) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,754,236 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,350,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CITY LORE INC have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $12,754,236 in grants to CITY LORE INC, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITY LORE INC?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,350,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITY LORE 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 City Lore →
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 57 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