Kentucky · Nonprofit
KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN
KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN (Kentucky) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,704,015 to it, the largest being OWSLEY BROWN II FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($2,325,001). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $7.7M
- Net assets
- $5.2M
What Kentucky College of Art Design does
Mission
The kentucky college of art and design opens the door to a creative and productive life through an undergraduate education in the contemporary arts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 2009, kentucky college of art and design is proud of its success. Core values and principles have helped to shape the institution and our work toward a mission to provide a transformational experience for our students. As a brand-new independent college looking to demonstrate the value of the arts to society, we embrace the ability of the arts to reflect a generation's interests and opinions. This college places the meaning of practice and the artist's voice beside the skills and the tools with which we speak.from our histories to new technologies, from our crafts and material practices to a new digital world of the virtual and unreal, we investigate the very roots of what it means to be human in a wide variety of ways. Artists use not only intution and speculation, but also spiritual, emotional, analytical and material ways to search for new knowledge.in november of 2018, the kentucky council on post secondary education granted the kentucky college of art and design the autority to grant a bfa in studio art.
$2,493,268 spentof which $753,000 as grants$753,000 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,493,268.
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 2019 to 2020, from $1.7M to $5.9M (+252%).
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 97% · 2021 23% · 2022 5% · 2023 5% · 2025 74%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
John Birnsteel
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $11k → $1.3M.
4 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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: $1.8M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN raised.
From the IRS filings of KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 78%; 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 76% · 2018 97% · 2019 96% · 2020 50% · 2021 35% · 2022 35% · 2023 42% — 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
60% of KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
99% of KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN's grant income comes from Kentucky funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $59k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN has grown faster than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN
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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN: 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 KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN?
- KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN (Kentucky) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,704,015 to it, the largest being OWSLEY BROWN II FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($2,325,001). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $7,704,015 in grants to KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN?
- OWSLEY BROWN II FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,325,001 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 15 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