New York · Nonprofit
PUBLICOLOR INC
PUBLICOLOR INC (New York) receives grants from 141 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,762,829 to it, the largest being JOSEPH & SYLVIA SLIFKA FOUNDATION INC ($1,625,000). 82 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 141
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Publicolor Inc does
Mission
Publicolor is an innovative educational youth development organization that empowers students facing immense life challenges for academic and career success through a multi-year project-based continuum of programs. The organization's vision is to provide low-income students with educational equity and economic equality by creatively addressing undereducation and combating learning loss.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In the 29 years since its founding in 1996, publicolor has achieved significant results:- an estimated 30,200 students from low-income communities have participated in publicolor programs.- over 29,500 corporate, community, and college volunteers have engaged in painting public schools, tutoring, and mentoring.- publicolor has transformed a total of 371 nyc schools, representing approximately 25% of all nyc department of education campuses, and 260 under-resourced community facilities, including homeless shelters, playgrounds, early childhood centers, health clinics, pedestrian walkways, and many other vital community resources. In fy25, publicolor engaged 1,684 students in grades 6 through college, helping them achieve noteworthy outcomes:- students in the 2024 summer design studio program increased their scores on post-diagnostic tests by an average of 5.1% in english language arts and 5.5% in math. This is especially significant because summer learning loss is considered by many to be a significant factor in the achievement gap between low- and high-income students.- 100% of continuum students were promoted on time to the next grade.- 100% of publicolor's 31 high school seniors…
$2,845,166 spentof which $80,483 as grants$109,792 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,845,166.
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 $4.4M to $5.9M (+34%).
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 13% · 2018 15% · 2019 14% · 2020 15% · 2021 21% · 2022 27% · 2023 26% · 2024 17% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of PUBLICOLOR INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Rosa Pietanza
Interim chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 34 funders to 70 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $1.5M.
15 of 141 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 PUBLICOLOR INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 141 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
PUBLICOLOR INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
27% 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 PUBLICOLOR INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 22% · 2019 26% · 2020 23% · 2021 16% · 2022 17% · 2023 8% — 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
46% of PUBLICOLOR INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
78% of PUBLICOLOR 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. $3.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
PUBLICOLOR INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PUBLICOLOR INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $55k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$55k
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 PUBLICOLOR 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
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 11 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PUBLICOLOR 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 PUBLICOLOR INC?
- PUBLICOLOR INC (New York) receives grants from 141 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,762,829 to it, the largest being JOSEPH & SYLVIA SLIFKA FOUNDATION INC ($1,625,000). 82 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PUBLICOLOR INC have?
- IRS filings report 141 organizations giving $12,762,829 in grants to PUBLICOLOR INC, 82 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PUBLICOLOR INC?
- JOSEPH & SYLVIA SLIFKA FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,625,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PUBLICOLOR 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.
Play a game about who funds Publicolor →
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 141 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