New York · Nonprofit
FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC
FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC (New York) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,090,158 to it, the largest being HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION INC ($2,252,500). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 91
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $54M
What Foundation for Contemporary Arts Inc does
Mission
To encourage, sponsor, and promote innovative work in the arts created and presented by individuals, groups, and organizations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Creative research grants administration - creative research grants of $10,000 are awarded by fca to support critical exploratory phases of the artistic process. Launched in 2024, the program is made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of margo leavin. Fca invites prior recipients of emergency grants to apply for activities that would inform and enhance their artistic practice over an 18-month period. Applications are reviewed by staff for eligibility and subsequently reviewed by an artist panel in two phases to select the recipients. Recipients sign a grant agreement and are asked to submit a final report upon the conclusion of funded activities, describing how they used their grant and its impact.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Grants to artists: unrestricted, $45,000 cash awards intended to provide recipients with the financial means to engage in whatever artistic endeavors they wish to pursue. Recipients are chosen annually through a confidential peer nomination process, staff research, and selection by a committee comprising fca's board and guest experts. In 2024, 23 grants were made to individual artists. 11 of these awards are named after and in memory of artists: john cage, merce cunningham, viola farber, helen frankenthaler, roy lichtenstein, alvin lucier, richard pousette-dart, robert rauschenberg, dorothea tanning, cy twombly, and c.d. Wright. The cage and cunningham awards are made in alternating years.
$1,297,951 spentof which $1,035,000 as grants58% of program spendingEmergency grants: grants of $500-$3,000, awarded on a rolling basis to artists and collectives who incur unexpected expenses related to the public presentation of their work or receive sudden opportunities to present their work publicly. Applications are received on a rolling basis through an open application process. Staff review applications for eligibility, and each month an artist panel reviews them and determines grant recipients. In 2024, fca made 231 emergency grants totaling $465,000.
$707,328 spentof which $465,000 as grants32% of program spendingWarren prindle visual arts scholarship (cvas): fca administers an annual scholarship program for college-bound seniors from the housatonic valley regional high school for undergraduate study in the fine arts, with funds contributed by a connecticut foundation. Selection is made by a panel of visual artists based on merit and financial need. Since 2023, each new scholarship recipient receives $80,000 over four years ($10,000 per semester). $60,000 was distributed to three students in 2024. Formerly the contemporary visual art scholarship, the award was named after hvrhs art teacher warren prindle upon his retirement.
$67,746 spentof which $60,000 as grants3% of program spendingThe ellsworth kelly award: this endowed award was established with a gift from the ellsworth kelly foundation in honor of the artist. The grant is made annually to create a solo exhibition opportunity for a contemporary visual artist at a u.s. Art museum or university or college art gallery. Fca identifies and invites applications from such institutions annually. The foundation's board reviews applications and selects the recipient. The 2024 award was $45,000.
$62,167 spentof which $45,000 as grants3% of program spendingCreative research grants administration:creative research grants of $10,000 are awarded by fca to support critical exploratory phases of the artistic process. Launched in 2024, the program is made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of margo leavin. Fca invites prior recipients of emergency grants to apply for activities that would inform and enhance their artistic practice over an 18-month period. Applications are reviewed by staff for eligibility and subsequently reviewed by an artist panel in two phases to select the recipients. Recipients sign a grant agreement and are asked to submit a final report upon the conclusion of funded activities, describing how they used their grant and its impact. The resulting $300,000 in creative research grants were awarded in january 2025 and do not appear in the grant total.
$95,568 spent4% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,230,760.
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 2022 to 2023, from $42M to $50M (+21%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 3% · 2020 1% · 2021 2% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Chief executive
Elizabeth K Takeda
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $1.4M.
8 of 91 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 91 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
FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 93% · 2018 12% · 2019 26% · 2020 18% · 2021 51% · 2022 34% · 2023 17% — 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
35% of FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
82% of FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS 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. $2.3M 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
FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS 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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
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 FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS 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 FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC?
- FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC (New York) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,090,158 to it, the largest being HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION INC ($2,252,500). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 91 organizations giving $12,090,158 in grants to FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC?
- HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,252,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS 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 91 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