New York · Nonprofit
RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST
RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST (New York) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,863,878 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($712,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $199M
What Rubin Museum of Art Aka the Shelley & Donald Rubin Cultural Trust does
Mission
The rubin museum of art in chelsea, new york city, explores and celebrates himalayan art, cultures, and ideas across history and into the present. With its globally renowned collection, centered largely around art from the tibetan plateau, the rubin fosters understanding and appreciation of himalayan art by interpreting and relating it to our shared human experience today. Inspired by the tenets of buddhism, hinduism, and indigenous religions, and aligned with ongoing research into learning, behavior, and the brain, the rubin offers innovative exhibitions and programs that examine provocative ideas across the arts and explore the mind. Through this work, the museum serves as a space for reflection and personal transformation, opening windows to inner worlds so visitors can better navigate outer ones.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Collections and exhibitions:in 2023, visitors to the museum encountered the exhibition death is not the end, which explored death and the afterlife in the art of tibetan buddhism and christianity with 58 objects spanning 12 centuries from the museum's collection alongside artworks on loan from private collections and major museums. The rubin also presented exhibitions outside of the museum's walls, connecting with audiences across the country and in europe. In february, the rubin inaugurated its traveling exhibition for colleges and universities, gateway to himalayan art, at lehigh university art galleries. Gateway later opened in september at the mcmullen museum of art at boston college. The same month in london, the traveling version of the mandala lab opened in canary wharf as part of the london design festival.
$4,961,232 spent$391,558 earned by the program53% of program spendingPublic programs and visitor engagement:the rubin's public programs offer diverse audiences meaningful ways to engage with the art and cultures of the himalayas. In 2023, adult workshops and talks centered on the unifying theme of life after, sparking conversations around life's transitions and our capacity to approach them with openness and awareness. Himalayan heritage programs provided insights into the art, cultures, and sacred traditions of the himalayan region, and drop-in workshops in collaboration with nyu's graduate art therapy program focused on creativity and self-reflection. We served visitors with alzheimer's and dementia and their care partners, as well as 5,545 school age children and 3,022 accompanying adults and educators, offering them custom offerings informed by mindfulness and himalayan art and cultures. We worked with 1,039 low-income students in schools as part of our math and mandalas program, and 89 educators for professional development workshops, providing them with an entre to social, emotional, and ethical (see) learning.
$1,955,562 spent$191,444 earned by the program21% of program spendingPublic relations and marketing (digital and analog sharing):in 2023, the rubin reached a growing and connected global audience through our digital initiatives. We launched the digital platform project himalayan art, an interdisciplinary resource for learning about himalayan, tibetan, and inner asian art and cultures. It had a digital reach of 25,000 users with over 100,000 views. We published the book himalayan art in 108 objects, with essays from 72 authors from around the world, as well as the seventh edition of spiral, our free annual print and online magazine, which received over 22,000 digital views. The rubin's impact extended through various digital platforms with more than 290,000 followers, and a digital reach of more than 8 million.
$1,542,206 spent16% of program spendingPublications, and shop, other misc.
$982,053 spent$190,439 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,441,053.
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 2021 to 2022, from $219M to $178M (−19%).
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 3% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 13% · 2021 7% · 2022 2% · 2023 9% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Jorrit Britschgi
Secretary/exec. Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $158k → $994k.
12 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 34% 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 RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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
RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
35% 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 RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 29% · 2019 27% · 2020 15% · 2021 27% · 2022 14% · 2023 30% — 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
37% of RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M 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
RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST's funding base is broadening — from 18 funders to 32 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 828 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
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 RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
36%
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 RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST: 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 RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST?
- RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST (New York) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,863,878 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($712,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $4,863,878 in grants to RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $712,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART AKA THE SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN CULTURAL TRUST 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.
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 83 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