Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY
PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,917,907 to it, the largest being CLAWS FOUNDATION ($5,200,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2023
- $779k
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $8.9M
- Net assets
- $114k
What Philadelphia Contemporary does
Mission
We connect the people and places of philadelphia through art and partnership. The organization is a free-standing platform that endeavors to show forward-thinking, high-quality contemporary visual and performance art in the city. The organization is a nexus for emerging cultural producers, diverse foundations and supporters as well as dynamic audiences and communities in and beyond the city. Rather than acquiring and maintaining a permanent collection, the organization is a non-collecting, multi- disciplinary, and sustainable art venue for the 21st century.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Programs
Through programmatic innovation, the spoken word program explores notions of personal and collective liberty through the act of speech and elevates poetry, spoken word, and performance to coequal branches of contemporary art.
$237,086 spent32% of program spendingThe citywide initiatives programming recognizes social engagement as the determining factor in programming across communities and throughout the neighborhoods of the city. This program foregrounds accountability, reciprocity, and listening as the values that center our work.
$380,199 spent51% of program spendingEcological futures programming focuses on our sustained relationship with the delaware river and addresses issues around environmental justice, climate change and environmental crises especially those impacting our urban community.
$16,642 spent2% of program spendingLived culture the lived culture programs celebrate and present art that embraces the breadth of what art can be beyond its traditional forms and institutional limitations. Education the youth ambassador program is a high-impact place-based education program centered on the arts, environmental justice, and civic engagement, for middle school youth with ties to the mantua community in west philadelphia. Special initiatives our commitment to collaboration and partnerships and flexible and nimble approach to programming holds space for programming opportunities as they arise such as community murals and university partnerships to present internationally renowned artists. Curatorial programs (all of the above) through an emphasis on partnerships and collaboration, our curatorial programming brings innovative contemporary art to philadelphia's communities and mounts temporary, rotating exhibitions, performances, and projects that emphasize relevant, experimental, and dynamic work from local, national, and international artists. Pc space Philadelphia Contemporary is focusing on developing a long-term home: an innovative, environmentally sustainable, net-zero, floating gallery on the…
$113,886 spent15% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $747,813.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $2.1M to $729k (−65%).
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: 2020 0% · 2021 23% · 2022 1% · 2023 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $3k → $840k.
4 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 81% · 2019 78% · 2020 89% · 2021 35% · 2022 22% · 2023 24% — 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
20% of PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $275k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 11 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,056 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2023
Government funding PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $80k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$80k
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 PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY: 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 PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY?
- PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,917,907 to it, the largest being CLAWS FOUNDATION ($5,200,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $8,917,907 in grants to PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY?
- CLAWS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PHILADELPHIA CONTEMPORARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Philadelphia Contemporary →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2019–2023), and the filings of 31 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