Grants for art museums

Name: Top 25 grants made to art museums
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

474 art museums received at least $231.6 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 3,174 grants made from 2,054 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,200. Of these 2,054 foundations, 75% made just a single grant to art museums, and 4% made grants to four or more art museums. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$231,619,128

Total grant dollars given to art museums

3,174

Number of grants made annually to art museums

2,054

Number of grantmakers funding art museums

$1,200

Median grant size to art museums

Foundations that support art museums

Out of all grants made to art museums, 80% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 89% of the dollar-value of grants to art museums. Foundations funding art museums also made grants to theaters, colleges, performing arts centers, international humanitarian organizations, and museums.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,654
Medium	257
Large	143

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	35
Private	1,867
Corporate	89
Other	63

Grants made

Grants made to art museums	Number of grantmakers
1	1,542
2-3	421
4-10	80
11+	11

Top 10 foundations supporting art museums

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to art museums	Number of grants made to art museums	Median grant size
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.3%	62	$1,600
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	44	$300
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	43	$2,000
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.1%	36	$1,500
The Columbus Foundation	OH	State	0.1%	27	$5,000
Charity Partners Foundation	MA	National	0.5%	21	$8
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF)	WA	Metro	0.2%	19	$1,000
Baird Foundation	WI	National	0.5%	16	$750
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation	NY	Metro	14.4%	14	$4,000
Greater Worcester Community Foundation	MA	Metro	0.3%	13	$1,500

See all grantmaking to art museums

Art museums grantees

Art museums with more than $5 million in total revenues received 98% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 74% of all art museums.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	3,154
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	20

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$2,125
$500k-$1M	$1,500
$1M-$5M	$1,500
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	941
California	296
Massachusetts	202
Florida	165
Other	1,570

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	928
Los Angeles	144
Boston	121
Miami	97
Other	1,759

Top 25 grants made to art museums

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Museum of Fine Arts	$105,485,818	Cash and Net Asset Value	Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation
Whitney Museum of American Art	$34,299,800	Donation of Cash and Artworks By Roy Lichtenstein for the Museum's Collection of His Work	Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art	$11,500,000	Arts & Culture	Town Branch Foundation
Taubman Museum of Art	$11,005,187	Operating Contribution	Taubman Foundation for the Arts
Portland Art Museum	$9,431,837	Arts, Culture & Humanities	The Oregon Community Foundation
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art	$8,000,000	Arts & Culture	The Builders Initiative
Denver Art Museum	$5,500,000	Construction	University of Denver (DU)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art	$5,200,000	Capital Campaign	Community Foundation of Greater Memphis
Museum of Fine Arts	$5,000,000	Construction, Organization Support	Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation
Denver Art Museum	$3,597,272	General Support	The Denver Art Museum Foundation
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum	$3,078,000	General Support	Burnett Foundation
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum	$2,967,750	General Support	Burnett Foundation / Dee Kelly JR Ttee
Hammer Museum	$2,751,434	General Support	Ucla Foundation
Charlotte Street Foundation	$2,616,907	Arts, Culture & Humanities	Greater Kansas City Community Foundation
Denver Art Museum	$2,610,759	Gifts for Art, Exhibitions, and Special Projects	The Denver Art Museum Foundation
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art	$2,520,894	Arts, Culture & Humanities	Greater Kansas City Community Foundation
Baltimore Museum of Art	$2,500,000	General Support	The Eddie C and C Sylvia Brown Family Foundation
Studio Museum in Harlem	$2,500,000	To Support the Construction of the Museum's New Building, and Capacity Enhancement As the Museum Prepares for Transition To Its Expanded Home	Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)	$2,500,000	Unrestricted Grant	Noel and Harriette Levine Foundation
Whitney Museum of American Art	$2,500,000	Unrestricted Charitable Use	Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation
The Contemporary Jewish Museum	$5,000	General Operating Support	Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation
Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Art Center	$5,000	To Support Mission of the Organization	The Community Foundation of the New River Valley (CFNRV)
Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA)	$5,000	Unrestricted Support	Lenore Hanauer Foundation
Shelburne Museum	$5,000	General Purpose	The Rittenberg Family Foundation
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art	$5,000	2018 Splendor Gala	Cheryl Chase and Stuart Bear Family Foundation

See all grants to art museums

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Art museums" category for this page is determined by the "A51: Art Museums" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.