New York · Nonprofit
THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART
THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART (New York) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,859,558 to it, the largest being JOHN AND MARY MANUCK FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ($3,700,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $115M
- Funders on record
- 75
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $510M
What The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art does
Mission
See schedule ovision: the cooper union for the advancement of science and art is dedicated to peter cooper's radical commitment to diversity and his founding vision that fair access to an inspiring free education and forums for courageous public discourse foster a just and thriving world.mission: our mission is to sustain the cooper union as a free center of learning and civic discourse that inspires inventive, creative, and influential voices in architecture, art, and engineering to address the critical challenges and opportunities of our time.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: the cooper union for the advancement of science and art is among the united states' oldest and most distinguished higher education institutions. It is comprised of three professional schools: architecture, art, and engineering; and a faculty of humanities and social sciences. (continued on schedule o)the college admits undergraduates solely on merit and historically awarded full-tuition scholarships to all enrolled undergraduate students. Following a provisional reduction in 2014 of scholarships to 50% of tuition due to fiscal reasons, the college is now executing a board-approved plan to resume its practice of awarding full-tuition scholarships to all enrolled undergraduate students. The institution provides students close contact with a distinguished, creative faculty and fosters rigorous, humanistic learning that is enhanced by the process of design and augmented by the urban setting. Enrollment for the 2024-2025 academic year was 849 undergraduate students and 78 graduate students.
$105,846,681 spentof which $33,244,256 as grants$43,069,622 earned by the program99% of program spendingResidence life: the cooper union student residence offers apartment-style housing to 156 students. The facility is staffed by professional and graduate student staff and 8 undergraduate resident assistants. The residential life staff hosts social, educational, and cultural programs aimed at building a strong community, increasing appreciation for diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and helping students transition to life in new york city and at the cooper union.
$1,242,748 spentof which $200,355 as grants$2,653,218 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $107,089,429.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.2B to $856M (−30%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 1% · 2022 7% · 2023 0% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
17% of THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Jamie Levitt
Chair - board of trustees
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $678k → $5.1M.
23 of 75 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 75 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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
60% 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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 47% · 2019 28% · 2020 39% · 2021 15% · 2022 21% · 2023 68% — 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
48% of THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART'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
THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART draws 61% 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. $8.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART's funding base is broadening — from 19 funders to 33 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 679 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.8M on record.
- Department of Education$3.9M
- National Endowment for the Arts$291k
- Department of Commerce$227k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$223k
- National Archives and Records Administration$99k
- National Science Foundation$52k
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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- Astor Place Holding Corporation · exempt
- Cv Starr Research Foundation · exempt
- Planned Giving Pools (8) · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (5) · corp_trust
- Charitable Gift Annuities (52) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART: 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 COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART?
- THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART (New York) receives grants from 75 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,859,558 to it, the largest being JOHN AND MARY MANUCK FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ($3,700,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART have?
- IRS filings report 75 organizations giving $16,859,558 in grants to THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART?
- JOHN AND MARY MANUCK FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY is the largest funder on record, with $3,700,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART 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 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art →
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 75 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