New York · Nonprofit
CITY LORE INC
CITY LORE INC (New York) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,634,236 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,350,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
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· 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Laurie M Tisch Foundation Incshared funderslocal
- City Parks Foundation Incportfolio match
- Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundationportfolio match
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.
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 (64% 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
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
64% 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 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 57 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Laurie M Tisch Foundation Incshared funderslocalNY · backs 76 organizations that share your funders · funds 112 organizations near you
- City Parks Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Cravens Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Queens Theatre in the Park Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- David & Minnie Berk Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Realty Foundation of New York Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Tilia Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New York City Tourism Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Abny Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Gray Foundationshared funderslocalNY · backs 66 organizations that share your funders · funds 121 organizations near you
- Altman Foundationshared funderslocalNY · backs 106 organizations that share your funders · funds 209 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
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
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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. 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 $12,634,236 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 $12,634,236 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.
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 57funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing