California · Nonprofit
GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,201,560 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($608,334). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.4M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $405k
What Gray Area Foundation for the Arts does
Mission
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts applies art and technology to create positive social impact through education, incubation and public programs. It tests and scales projects with high impact potential and teaches digital tools to support artists and technologists. Gray area operates the grand theater to support cultural events year-round.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Public events:we hosted one hundred and twenty-eight (150) total events in 2024. Thirty (30) of these were free for the public. Thirty-six (36) of these events were in partnership with local community nonprofit organizations which we supported through sharing resources and staff. We directly paid 450 artists. We elevate a plurality of voices through thoughtful curation of artists and presenters, including lgbtqia2+ and bipoc artists, highlighting issues and interests important to their communities. Gray area draws a statewide audience of over 45,000 visitors a year through its projects in san francisco, los angeles, and san diego. Our audience demographics include diverse gender, ethnicity, income, and age representation: 72% of our audience identifies as bipoc, and 70% as lgbtqia2+.in 2024, we presented they sustain us, the world premiere of first nations artist skawennati's latest machinima music video installation, fashion-art collection, and runway performance; and bodily autonomy, a solo exhibition by lauren lee mccarthy examining bio-surveillance. We produced our 10th annual gray area festival, inviting artists, researchers, technologists, and thinkers from around the world…
$435,820 spent7% of program spendingEducation:gray area's education program services include workshops and intensive courses. Gray area develops a steam (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) curriculum for artistic development by teaching interdisciplinary skills through the creation of artwork. We prioritize enrollment for a diversity of backgrounds within our education programs, 80% of our students self-identified as women, minorities, or other underrepresented groups in technology fields. In the last year, we ran 29+ unique online, free, and low-cost education activities led by artists, offered to over 394 students. Our online courses welcomed over 108 global students.we produced the decentralized web (dweb) for creators 8-week online course that empowered artists, designers, archivists, gallerists, curators, and others with the knowledge and tools necessary for exploring the decentralized web. Through lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice with emerging technologies, participants in dweb for creators used an intersectional lens to study the theoretical frameworks that shape the decentralized web. Participants engaged with technologies like blockchain and mesh networks; examined case…
$74,750 spentof which $112,325 as grants1% of program spendingIncubator:gray area's incubator services include residency, research lab, and fiscal sponsorship opportunities. Gray area collaborates with artists and creative practitioners who critically investigate new ideas, create and adapt technologies through their work, and engage with pressing social and civic issues.we hosted simulation sessions, a monthly mini-lecture and hack night for artists, game designers, character designers, architects, world builders, and ai agent designers working in (or interested in exploring) 3d simulation. In response to the growing prevalence and sophistication of virtual simulations and environments, these sessions seek to sustain a local community of 3d designers, artists, and technologists, facilitate peer teaching and learning, and spark dialogue about the social, cultural, and political dimensions of building digital worlds. Fiscal sponsorships:gray area fiscally sponsors projects strategically aligned with the organizational mission. We currently support 10 sponsored projects. In 2024, we expanded our services to include san diego through a partnership with coplace, and los angeles through a partnership with rip space.
$5,826,535 spent90% of program spendingMembership and other program services:
$121,938 spent2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,459,043.
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 $790k to $2.0M (+147%).
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 1% · 2020 12% · 2021 20% · 2022 6% · 2023 5% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
16% of GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 6 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
Barry Threw
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $173k → $371k.
16 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 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 GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 53% · 2019 60% · 2020 30% · 2021 45% · 2022 59% · 2023 52% — growing more concentrated.
“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
8% of GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
72% of GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $985k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS has grown faster than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $305k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$305k
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 GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS: 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 GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS?
- GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,201,560 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($608,334). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $2,201,560 in grants to GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $608,334 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GRAY AREA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 42 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing