California · Nonprofit
CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS
CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS (California) receives grants from 282 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,934,895 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($9,315,394). 166 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53M
- Funders on record
- 282
- Grants received
- $67M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums does
Mission
The Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums (cofam) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation formed in 1987 responsible to operate the de young museum and the legion of honor and to raise and maintain funds for the museums' support. Cofam conducts this work on behalf of the fine arts museum of san francisco (famsf), which is a charitable trust department of the city and county of san francisco (city). The city owns the land and buildings in which the museums operate, and most of the collections, and provides partial operating support through an annual appropriation for their care and maintenance. Cofam accomplishes the mission of famsf through exhibition of the permanent collections, special exhibitions, scholarly publications, education programs, care and research of the collections, and public programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibitions - cofam presented 20 exhibitions in the de young and legion of honor during fye june 30, 2025. The wide range of exhibitions reflects the encyclopedic nature of the museums and included: tamara de lempicka, isaac julien, paul mccartney photographs, mary cassatt at work, and wayne thiebaud. The museums welcomed 1,165,000 guests in fiscal 2025, a decrease of 3% over the prior year.
$23,999,713 spent$8,351,452 earned by the program52% of program spendingCollections research, care and conservation - cofam's staff include curators, registrars and conservators who handle, research and care for the city's significant permanent collections housed and exhibited at the de young and legion of honor, as well as works borrowed from other institutions and private collections for special exhibitions. Care and research extend to a robust program of new acquisitions.
$12,926,024 spent$421,243 earned by the program28% of program spendingEducation and public programs - cofam offers an extensive array of education and public programs, including free saturdays, free school group visits and programming, and family programs. We partner with community groups, advisors and artists to create high quality and relevant programs. We also provide educational training, classroom materials and curricula, and support to art professionals, students, researchers, and teachers. Cofam continues to innovate its education and public programs to assure everyone feels welcome and comfortable at the museums, and able to access and digest information in a variety of ways. The museums offer free access to special exhibitions several times each year on access mondays reserved for visitors with disabilities. These programs serve over 200,000 visitors each year.
$7,026,975 spent$3,178,984 earned by the program15% of program spendingSupport fine arts museums foundation. Transfer to fine arts museums foundation.
$1,965,777 spentof which $1,965,777 as grants4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $45,918,489.
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 $25M to $32M (+27%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2022 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Thomas Campbell
Director of museums and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 79 funders to 114 funders, grant income rose $2.9M → $8.0M.
33 of 282 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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: $50M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Fine Arts Museums Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS raised.
From the IRS filings of CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 282 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
CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
54% 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 CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 27% · 2019 20% · 2020 16% · 2021 15% · 2022 14% · 2023 11% — 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
42% of CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS'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
54% of CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $31M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $36M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS's revenue grew 19% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $467k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$325k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$100k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$42k
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 CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
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 2 related entities
- Fine Arts Museums Foundation · exempt
- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: 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 CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS?
- CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS (California) receives grants from 282 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,934,895 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($9,315,394). 166 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS have?
- IRS filings report 282 organizations giving $66,934,895 in grants to CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS, 166 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $9,315,394 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS 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 282 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