New York · Nonprofit
PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION
PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $154,000 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($50,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $295k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $154k
- Net assets
- $75k
What Photowork Foundation does
Mission
Photowork Foundation supports the development and education of post- documentary photographic artists through mentorship, education, grants, and other resources, while cultivating audiences for their work.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The photowork podcast is an ongoing series of interviews with influential figures in the fine art photography world, including photographers, curators, and publishers. Through deep, personal conversations, valuable insights into their processes and practices are revealed to a global community of listeners.
$30,803 spent19% of program spendingThe photowork junior fellowship is a six-month mentoring program pairing emerging artists with accomplished photographers. It aims to support individual artists development, regardless of their educational background, and build a cohort of fellows who will impact the photographic community by advancing the post-documentary genre and contributing to future photowork initiatives.
$53,650 spent$5,210 earned by the program33% of program spendingThe photowork senior fellowship awards a $10,000 grant to each of three photographers who demonstrate a sustained commitment to photography and exhibit both the readiness and capability to work with a photography mentor over a period of six months toward creating a book maquette of a comprehensive body of work and preparing the foundations for their own journey towards publishing their first monograph.
$78,751 spent$4,213 earned by the program48% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $163,204.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2024 to 2025, from $49k to $75k (+55%).
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: 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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
Alexandra Wolf
Executive director/president
Board chair
Peter Kayafas
Board chair/secretary
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION’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
PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% 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
62% 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 PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION.
“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.
Where its funders are
62% of PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $59k that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from New York funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $96k 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
PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION
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
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION: 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 PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION?
- PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $154,000 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($50,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $154,000 in grants to PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PHOTOWORK FOUNDATION 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.
Play a game about who funds Photowork →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 7 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