New York · Nonprofit
DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC
DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC (New York) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,117,883 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $5.1M
- Net assets
- $234k
What Design Trust for Public Space Inc does
Mission
The Design Trust for Public Space is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the future of public space in New York City. Our projects bring together city agencies, community groups and private sector experts to make a lasting impact - through design - on how New Yorkers live, work and play.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Turnout nycturnout nyc is a community-oriented initiative in partnership with situ that will provide infrastructure support for new york city-based arts and cultural organizations while expanding access to the arts across the city. Supported by a $2 million grant from the mellon foundation, the venture will create flexible and semi-permanent outdoor venues one in each borough in collaboration with cultural partners from within each community.turnout nyc brought over 800 events and featured more than 500 artists from throughout the city during the 2022 summer season. The five sites supported equitable access to the arts and provide infrastructure for artists, especially black, latinx, asian, indigenous, and other historically marginalized peoples.photo urbanismthe photo urbanism program offers fellowships to local photographers to create a newbody of work illuminating the public spaces of nyc. On the neighborhood commonsproject team, our photo urbanism fellow barnabas crosby turned a handball court in apublic park into a photo studio and photographed black business owners in a series ofcompelling portraits. Limited by costs and social distancing requirements, covid-19proposed a…
$1,881,640 spentof which $151,333 as grants87% of program spendingNeighborhood CommonsNeighborhood Commons is a timely initiative supported by a grant from NYC SBS that will provide small business and place-based organizations with tools and strategies to recover as community anchors that support our main streets. Working with Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and local businesses, Neighborhood Commons is leveraging public space initiatives surrounding commercial corridors to support local economies, develop representative place-based governance models for NYC streets as public space, and produce a guide of better practices for both the Citys and community partners stewardship of public spaces.This year, our team conducted a comprehensive research process that encompassed a review of citywide policies impacting public space use and management, as well as stakeholder engagement with business improvement districts and other place-based organization leaders across 12 neighborhoods. In 2022, Design Trust will release a toolkit of policy recommendations and pilot projects to test out these proposals for best public space governance practices.
$134,181 spent6% of program spendingOpening the EdgeIn Phase III of Opening the Edge, weve been continuing the development of a lively public space at the Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side, which could be replicated at other NYCHA developments. The pandemic may have slowed some things down, but most of all, it showed us how vital public spaces are for communities who don't have access to parks and open spaces. Over the past year, weve been working with our team of residents, fellows and Davies Toews Architects on finalizing the design of the new park space. We held 4 Community Design Team meetings, plus one for youth to explore materials, bench shapes, and layouts. The latest design features a raised platform for performances or classes, grassy pavers and unique benches. In the meantime, the space has been host to community design team meetings and awareness-raising events with neighbors, including the Lighting the Edge art installation. Designed by Community Design Team member and now Fellow Mollie Serena, Lighting the Edge was a temporary art fixture of colored plexiglass pieces hung on the fence surrounding our future Opening the Edge site to highlight the fence itself, engage neighbors and beautify the…
$94,053 spent4% of program spendingOTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: Opening the EdgeIn Phase III of Opening the Edge, weve been continuing the development of a lively public space at the Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side, which could be replicated at other NYCHA developments. The pandemic may have slowed some things down, but most of all, it showed us how vital public spaces are for communities who don't have access to parks and open spaces. Over the past year, weve been working with our team of residents, fellows and Davies Toews Architects on finalizing the design of the new park space. We held 4 Community Design Team meetings, plus one for youth to explore materials, bench shapes, and layouts. The latest design features a raised platform for performances or classes, grassy pavers and unique benches. In the meantime, the space has been host to community design team meetings and awareness-raising events with neighbors, including the Lighting the Edge art installation. Designed by Community Design Team member and now Fellow Mollie Serena, Lighting the Edge was a temporary art fixture of colored plexiglass pieces hung on the fence surrounding our future Opening the Edge site to highlight the fence itself, engage…
$42,361 spent$80,420 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2022 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,152,235.
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 2020 to 2021, from $580k to $2.4M (+316%).
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 10% · 2019 7% · 2021 5% · 2022 23% · 2023 28% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% 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
Eve Klein Associate Aia
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $240k → $341k.
6 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 44% · 2019 75% · 2020 67% · 2021 74% · 2022 70% · 2023 56% — 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
30% of DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
97% of DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE 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. $457k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $278k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$278k
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 DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE 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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE 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 DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC?
- DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC (New York) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,117,883 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $5,117,883 in grants to DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE INC?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE 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 36 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