Texas · Nonprofit
THE CHINATI FOUNDATION
THE CHINATI FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,588,975 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,248,350). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.4M
- Funders on record
- 89
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $25M
What The Chinati Foundation does
Mission
The mission of The Chinati Foundation/la fundacion chinati is to preserve the vision of the artist donald judd (1928-1994), who in 1986 founded the organization as a unique museum. Judd installed large-scale works and groups of work by himself and a limited number of other artists on a permanent basis according to each artist's specifications. It was judd's goal to bring art, architecture, and the land together to form a coherent whole. Judd believed in the purity of art and its intrinsic value for humans. He situated his museum in marfa, texas, believing that the remoteness and vast open spaces of the locale enhanced viewers' experience of the artworks. Central to this mission are conserving the collection and making it available to the public, while maintaining the educational programs that judd initiated.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
To preserve The Chinati Foundation's permanent art collection and present it to the public: the museum is located on 340 acres of land on the site of the former fort d.a. Russell in the small town of marfa, texas. With funds provided by the dia art foundation, repairs and renovations of the historic buildings were begun in 1979, followed by the installations of art works. In 1986, chinati opened to the public as an independent, non-profit, publicly funded organization. The original concept was to focus on work by donald judd, dan flavin, and john chamberlain, who are represented in the collection by 15 outdoor works in concrete, and 100 mill aluminum works in two converted artillery sheds (donald judd); illuminations in colored fluorescent light in six former barracks (dan flavin); and 225 sculptures installed in a renovated warehouse (john chamberlain). Subsequently, judd decided to expand the collection to include works by claes oldenburg & coosje van bruggen, richard long, roni horn, david rabinowitch, ilya kabakov, and ingolfur arnarsson. Following his death in 1994, the museum realized projects, adhering to judd's ideas including carl andre's poems (1995(, dan flavin's…
$2,182,586 spent$336,962 earned by the program89% of program spendingPrograms: chinati sponsors programs initiated by judd establishing links to the local community, other cultural institutions and universities in the us and abroad. These include artists' residencies, summer art classes for local children, internships, temporary art exhibitions, publications and symposia. The Chinati Foundation will continue these programs hosting interns and artists from around the world, publishing its annual newsletter with scholarly essays and museum information in english and spanish, conducting its summer arts classes and additional educational programs throughout the year for area residents, sponsoring symposia (every few years) and temporary exhibitions (annually) related to chinati's collection and judd's vision. Chinati's emphasis remains on the permanent collection; its development, maintenance and conservation will be a cornerstone for the museum's efforts in the coming years. In all of its activities the museum is guided by the ideas of its founder and his philosophical approach that art is essential to life, and created with the concern of its relationship to the constructed and natural environment. Chinati's collection and programs reflect judd's…
$277,183 spent11% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,459,769.
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 $23M to $19M (−18%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 22% · 2022 3% · 2023 1% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of THE CHINATI FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Caitlin Murray
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $86k → $725k.
11 of 89 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 THE CHINATI FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 89 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
THE CHINATI FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
39% 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 THE CHINATI FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 57% · 2019 55% · 2020 11% · 2021 60% · 2022 30% · 2023 19% — 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
41% of THE CHINATI FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
THE CHINATI FOUNDATION draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
THE CHINATI FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE CHINATI FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $30k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$30k
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 THE CHINATI 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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CHINATI 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 THE CHINATI FOUNDATION?
- THE CHINATI FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,588,975 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,248,350). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CHINATI FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 89 organizations giving $10,588,975 in grants to THE CHINATI FOUNDATION, 44 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CHINATI FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,248,350 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CHINATI FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Chinati →
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 89 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