Foundation Grants to Arts and Culture, 2016
A One-Year Snapshot
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On February 1, 2019, Foundation Center and GuideStar joined forces to become Candid, a 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at Candid.org.
This year’s snapshot of arts funding is the second that utilizes a broader approach to capturing information about arts funding. This broader approach looks at both the primary and secondary purposes of a grant, while prior analyses focused only on those grants identified as having a primary purpose of arts. For example, a grant awarded to a youth organization to develop leadership skills in adolescents through a local community theater program may be tagged with both an arts and youth development code. In previous years if this grant had been coded as having a primary focus of youth development, it would not have been included as an arts grant. With the new broader approach, this grant would be included in the arts analysis. Because the distinction between the primary and secondary purposes of a grant is in many cases arbitrary, this strategy ensures that all arts-related grants will be included in our analyses.
In 2016, giving by the approximately 86,000 active US foundations rose 10 percent to $68.9 billion. Among 1,000 of the largest US independent, corporate, community, and grantmaking operations included in Foundation Center by Candid’s 2016 FC 1000 data set, overall giving was up only 2 percent; however, arts and culture funding grew at a much faster rate (up 10 percent). Arts and culture remained among top foundation funding priorities, ranking fifth following human services. From 2011 to 2015, arts and culture ranked sixth among foundation funding priorities.
Highlights
Candid (formerly Foundation Center) offers these key findings from GIA’s seventeenth snapshot of foundation giving to arts and culture. The definition of arts and culture used for this snapshot is based on Candid’s (formerly Foundation Center) Philanthropy Classification System and encompasses funding for the performing arts, museums, visual arts, multidisciplinary arts, humanities, historical activities, arts services, folk arts, public arts, and cultural awareness. The findings in this snapshot are based on analysis of two closely related data sets. The analysis of the distribution of 2016 arts and culture giving uses the latest FC 1000 data set,1 while the analysis of changes in foundation giving for the arts between 2015 and 2016 uses a matched set of foundations that are consistent between the FC 1000 for each of those two years.2
Arts funding as a share of total dollars remained the same in 2016. Among the 1,000 largest foundations included in Candid’s (formerly Foundation Center) grants sample for 2016, arts giving totaled $3 billion, or 9 percent of overall grant dollars. Compared to the previous year, share of dollars and share of number of grants remained basically unchanged.
Foundation funding for arts and culture was up in 2016. Among a matched set of leading funders, arts funding increased 10 percent between 2015 and 2016 compared to a 2 percent increase in overall giving by these foundations.
The size of the median arts grant was down. The median arts and culture grant size — $28,600 — decreased from $30,000. This was below the $33,500 median amount for all foundation grants in the latest year.
Large grants account for more than half of arts grant dollars. Large arts grants of $500,000 and more captured 63 percent of total grant dollars for the arts in 2016, up from 58 percent in 2015.
Relative to overall giving, a larger share of arts grant dollars provided operating support. In 2016, general operating support accounted for 26 percent of arts and culture grant dollars. The share is significantly higher than the 16 percent share awarded to general support for overall giving.
The share of funding by top arts funders increased. The top twenty-five arts funders by giving amount provided 40 percent of total foundation arts dollars in 2016, up slightly from the 37 percent share reported in 2015. The share of arts giving accounted for by the top funders has remained relatively consistent for the past decade.
Please note: It is important to keep in mind that the foundation grantmaking examined here represents only one source of arts financing. It does not examine arts support from earned income, governments, individual donors, or the business community. This analysis also looks only at foundation arts support for nonprofit organizations, and not for individual artists, commercial arts enterprises, or informal and unincorporated activities.
Specific Findings
Overall foundation dollars for the arts. The foundations included in Candid’s (formerly Foundation Center) 2016 FC 1000 data set awarded 20,525 arts and culture grants, totaling just over $3 billion, or 9 percent of overall grant dollars (figure 1). This share was consistent with 2015. Similarly, the share of number of arts grants remained nearly unchanged at 12 percent. Among a matched subset of 883 funders, grant dollars for the arts increased 10 percent between 2015 and 2016, compared to a 2 percent increase in grant dollars overall. Among the other top-ranked subject areas by grant dollars, only philanthropy and nonprofit management and international relations reported higher increases in dollars (figure 2).
The impact of exceptionally large grants. Every year and in all funding areas, a few very large grants can skew overall totals, creating distortions in long-term grantmaking trends. In 2016, twenty-one arts and culture grants provided at least $10 million, and instances where these grants had a notable impact on grantmaking patterns are identified throughout this analysis. Yet despite the potential fluctuations caused by these exceptional grants, Candid (formerly Foundation Center) data in all fields have always included them, providing consistency over time. In addition, Candid (formerly Foundation Center) provides statistics based on share of number of grants, which are not skewed by exceptionally large grants.
Corporate foundations represent an important source of support for arts and culture. Corporate foundations account for roughly 7 percent of overall US private and community foundation giving, and these larger corporate foundations included in the 2016 grants sample provided 5 percent of grant dollars for the arts (figure 3). Actual grant dollars totaled $140 million. By number, corporate foundations allocated 2,283 grants, or 11 percent, of the overall number of arts grants in 2016. Please note that these figures do not include direct corporate giving; the amount that corporations contribute to the arts is undoubtedly higher.
Grants by Arts Subfield
Funding for performing arts accounted for one-third of all foundation arts dollars in 2016 (figure 4), surpassing the share reported for museums, which was 29 percent). From the start of the 1980s until 1997, the performing arts have consistently received more foundation support than museums. However, museums surpassed the performing arts by share in the late 1990s to early 2000s and several times in recent years (2010, 2013, and 2014). More study would be needed to adequately understand the underlying reasons for the shifts in share between these two fields of activity. These reasons could include, for example, the entry onto the scene of new and large arts funders, extraordinarily large grants, the contribution of valuable art collections, and new capital projects at museums.
Giving to performing arts. In 2016, among a matched set of funders, performing arts grant dollars increased 15 percent compared to 2015, while the number of grants rose 3 percent. A total of 8,696 grants were awarded for the performing arts by foundations in the set — close to double the number reported for museums. In general, the average performing arts grant tends to be smaller in size than the average museum grant (around $120,000 versus $200,000 in 2016). The largest share of giving to the performing arts supported theaters and performing arts centers. The largest performing arts grant in the latest sample was a $36 million award from the Holland Foundation to the Omaha Performing Arts Society. Included within the performing arts is support for performing arts education, which totaled $46.6 million in 2016. (See “Giving to multidisciplinary arts,” below, for a figure on foundation grant dollars supporting other types of arts education.)
Giving to museums. In 2016, museums benefited from 4,507 grants totaling $880 million awarded by the 1,000 largest foundations included in the FC 1000 data set. Nearly half of funding supported art museums. Among a matched set of funders, grant dollars allocated to museums was up 13 percent between 2015 and 2016, while the number of grants increased 6 percent. The largest museum grant in 2016 was a $30 million grant from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the National Gallery of Art to establish endowments on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the gallery’s opening, with the intention of helping the gallery secure several of its most important programs in perpetuity and catalyzing major support from other donors.
Giving to the humanities. In 2016, the humanities benefited from 1,016 grants totaling $246 million awarded by the 1,000 largest foundations included in the FC 1000 data set.3 Funding for this area accounted for 8 percent of arts grant dollars in 2016, up slightly from the 7 percent share captured in 2015. Among a matched set of funders, grant dollars awarded for the humanities increased 34 percent, while the number of grants awarded was up 10 percent.
Giving to historic preservation. Support for historic preservation increased 45 percent between 2015 and 2016 among a matched set of funders, while the number of grants awarded held steady.4 Among the largest grants awarded for historic preservation in the latest year was a $9.2 million grant from the Alphawood Foundation to the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation for the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple. Overall, historic preservation benefited from 1,485 grants totaling $240.8 million in 2016.
Giving to multidisciplinary arts. The share of arts giving for multidisciplinary arts fell to 7 percent in 2016 from 9 percent in 2015.5 Grant dollars awarded for multidisciplinary arts also declined 12 percent between 2015 and 2016 among the matched set of funders. Among the various subcategories of multidisciplinary arts, arts education (excluding performing arts education) totaled $225 million in the latest year.
Giving to the visual arts. Among a matched set of funders, grant dollars for the visual arts and architecture decreased 13 percent between 2015 and 2016, while the number of grants for the field was up 6 percent. The visual arts and architecture benefited from $160 million in 2016, including a $5.8 million grant from the Moody Foundation to Rice University for assistance with the construction of a new Center for the Arts — a performance, classroom, and exhibition space — that will advance cross-university collaboration and innovative research in the visual and performing arts.
TABLE 1: Distribution of grants by support strategy, 2016*
| Support strategy | Dollar amount | % | No. of grants | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity-building and technical assistance | 153,322,768 | 5.1 | 568 | 2.8 |
| Capital and infrastructure | 392,704,171 | 13.1 | 1,037 | 5.1 |
| Building acquisitions | 5,062,500 | 0.2 | 2 | – |
| Building and renovations | 127,065,611 | 4.2 | 205 | 1.0 |
| Capital campaigns | 79,762,898 | 2.7 | 149 | 0.7 |
| Collections acquisitions | 14,895,133 | 0.5 | 13 | 0.1 |
| Collections management and preservation | 21,645,584 | 0.7 | 40 | 0.2 |
| Equipment | 9,006,984 | 0.3 | 53 | 0.3 |
| Facilities maintenance | 2,750,000 | 0.1 | 4 | – |
| Information technology | 4,689,000 | 0.2 | 31 | 0.2 |
| Land acquisitions | 3,250,000 | 0.1 | 3 | – |
| Rent | – | – | – | – |
| Other capital and infrastructure | 138,551,903 | 4.6 | 556 | 2.7 |
| Financial sustainability | 273,023,908 | 9.1 | 792 | 3.9 |
| Annual campaigns | 4,762,410 | 0.2 | 60 | 0.3 |
| Debt reduction | 12,285,843 | 0.4 | 11 | 0.1 |
| Earned income | 1,750,000 | 0.1 | 2 | – |
| Emergency funds | 2,316,667 | 0.1 | 5 | – |
| Endowments | 139,767,412 | 4.7 | 64 | 0.3 |
| Financial services | 15,000 | – | 1 | – |
| Fundraising | 105,004,118 | 3.5 | 433 | 2.1 |
| Sponsorships | 615,450 | – | 4 | – |
| Other financial sustainability | 59,948,758 | 2.0 | 229 | 1.1 |
| General support | 769,562,168 | 25.6 | 5,105 | 24.9 |
| Individual development and student aid | 110,384,381 | 3.7 | 543 | 2.6 |
| Leadership and professional development | 40,571,367 | 1.4 | 138 | 0.7 |
| Network-building and collaboration | 65,395,738 | 2.2 | 315 | 1.5 |
| Policy, advocacy, and systems reform | 45,449,277 | 1.5 | 239 | 1.2 |
| Advocacy | 21,817,549 | 0.7 | 139 | 0.7 |
| Coalition building | 215,000 | – | 3 | – |
| Equal access | 13,837,479 | 0.5 | 71 | 0.3 |
| Ethics and accountability | 159,800 | – | 3 | – |
| Grassroots organizing | 5,400,469 | 0.2 | 20 | 0.1 |
| Litigation | 375,000 | – | 1 | – |
| Public policy and systems reform | 11,722,677 | 0.4 | 52 | 0.3 |
| Other policy, advocacy, and systems reform | 21,917,100 | 0.7 | 102 | 0.5 |
| Publishing and productions | 275,030,872 | 9.2 | 1609 | 7.8 |
| Product and service development | 238,500 | – | 5 | – |
| Program support | 814,638,333 | 27.1 | 5,603 | 27.3 |
| Public engagement and marketing | 123,458,464 | 4.1 | 447 | 2.2 |
| Research and evaluation | 73,465,010 | 2.4 | 214 | 1.0 |
| Other specified strategies | 97,895,973 | 3.3 | 521 | 2.5 |
| Not specified | 736,568,060 | 24.5 | 6,974 | 34.0 |
| Total | 3,003,305,217 | 100.0 | 20,525 | 100.0 |
Source: Foundation Center by Candid, 2019. Based on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by 1,000 of the largest foundations representing approximately half of total giving by all US foundations.
* Grants may occasionally be for multiple support stategies, e.g., for new works and for endowment, and would thereby be counted twice.
Grants by Support Strategy
An important caveat to report with regard to the allocation of foundation dollars by specific support strategy is that for roughly a quarter of arts grant dollars in the 2016 Candid (formerly Foundation Center) sample, the support strategy could not be identified. This means that modest differences in percentages may not be reliable. (The grant records available to Candid (formerly Foundation Center) often lack the information necessary to identify the support strategy. For example, it is often the case that the only source of data on grants is the 990-PF tax return, and this tends to be less complete than other forms of grant reporting.)
The arts compared to other foundation fields of giving. The three largest categories of support tracked by Candid (formerly Foundation Center) are program support, general operating support, and capital support.
Program support accounted for the largest share of arts grant dollars in 2016, at 27 percent of all arts funding. Special programs and projects typically receive one of the largest shares of arts and culture grants and grant dollars. In fact, the same is true in most of the major fields, such as health and education, where program support consistently accounts for one of the largest shares of funding.
General operating support received the second largest share of arts grants dollars. The shares of grant dollars and number of grants allocated for this support strategy in 2016 were higher for arts and culture — 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively — than the overall share directed to operating support by FC 1000 foundations, which accounted for roughly 16 percent of grant dollars and 20 percent of the number of grants.
Capital support accounted for the third largest share of arts grant dollars. Similar to general support, the share of grant dollars allocated for this type of support was also higher for arts and culture (13 percent) than for grants overall (7 percent). Grants for capital support are larger on average than awards for program and general operating support, and exceptionally large capital grants can have a pronounced effect on the distribution of funding by support strategy.
Arts grants by specific types of support. Table 1 provides a breakdown of more specific support strategies within the larger support categories and lists both the specific dollar value and number of grants made in each type. As for all data in the “snapshot,” it is important to keep in mind that this table includes only grants of $10,000 or more awarded to organizations by a sample of the top 1,000 foundations by total giving. It is also important to note that about a quarter of the arts grant dollars in this sample did not have a specified support strategy.
TABLE 2: Arts grants by grant size, 2016
| Grant range | No. of grants | % | Dollar amount | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5 million and over | 58 | 0.3 | $752,767,135 | 25.1 |
| $1 million – under $5 million | 478 | 2.3 | 798,319,787 | 26.6 |
| $500,000 – under $1 million | 530 | 2.6 | 332,602,221 | 11.1 |
| $100,000 – under $500,000 | 3,534 | 17.2 | 661,063,860 | 22.0 |
| $50,000 – under $100,000 | 3,333 | 16.2 | 206,159,305 | 6.9 |
| $25,000 – under $50,000 | 4,536 | 22.1 | 139,548,569 | 4.6 |
| $10,000 – under $25,000 | 8,056 | 39.2 | 112,844,340 | 3.8 |
| Total | 20,525 | 100.0 | $3,003,305,217 | 100.0 |
Source: Foundation Center by Candid, 2019. Based on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by 1,000 of the largest foundations representing approximately half of total giving by all US foundations.
Grants by Grant Size
Median grant size. The median, or “typical,” grant amount for arts and culture in 2016 was $28,600, which was below the median amount for all foundation grants ($33,500).6 Prior to last year, when the median amount for the arts was $30,000, the median amount had remained consistent at $25,000 since the early 1990s. While this is the second year in a row that the median arts grant amount has exceeded $25,000, more study would be required to determine whether this is a lasting upswing in the size of arts grants.
Small and midsized grants. Roughly two-thirds, or 61 percent, of all arts grants in the 2016 sample were for amounts between $10,000 and $49,999, nearly unchanged from the 2015 share (table 2). The share of midsized arts grants — $50,000 to $499,999 — also remained fairly consistent, accounting for about one-third of arts grants.
Large grants. The share of larger arts grants — $500,000 and over — remained consistent at 5 percent of the total number of arts grants in 2016. Their share of total grant dollars increased to 63 percent, compared to 58 percent in 2015. Overall, foundations in the sample made 141 arts grants of at least $2.5 million in 2016, up from 125 grants in 2015.
In addition to the $36 million award from the Holland Foundation to the Omaha Performing Arts Society noted earlier, examples of other especially large grants in 2016 include Crawford Taylor Foundation’s $30 million award to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation’s $10 million grant to the City Center of Music and Drama for Renovation of New York State Theater Building, and a $6 million grant to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History from the Rockefeller Foundation toward the costs of expanding its Hamilton Education Program to provide subsidized tickets to the show Hamilton for underprivileged high school students, and to distribute accompanying educational materials that integrate theatrical performance and the study of American history.
The twenty-five largest arts funders. The top twenty-five arts funders by giving amount provided 40 percent of the total arts dollars in Candid’s (formerly Foundation Center) 2016 sample, above the 37 percent share from 2015 (table 3). Overall, the share of giving accounted for by the top twenty-five arts funders has fluctuated between 33 and 40 percent since the end of the 1990s.
TABLE 3. Twenty-five largest arts, culture, and media funders, 2016
| Rank | Foundation | State | Number of arts grants | Arts grant dollars | Total grant dollars | Arts as percent of total dollars | Arts capital support dollars* | Arts other support dollars* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | NY | 267 | $208,595,850 | $285,451,300 | 73.1 | $16,779,100 | $205,556,350 |
| 2. | Samuel & Jean Frankel Foundation | MI | 4 | 161,963,059 | 166,148,059 | 97.5 | – | 161,463,059 |
| 3. | Bloomberg Philanthropies | NY | 549 | 89,983,764 | 691,304,252 | 13.0 | 2,700,000 | 65,291,060 |
| 4. | The Columbus Foundation and Affiliated Organizations | OH | 376 | 71,090,820 | 281,293,401 | 25.3 | 79,124 | 50,254,100 |
| 5. | Lilly Endowment Inc. | IN | 69 | 62,098,680 | 500,818,994 | 12.4 | 6,399,800 | 53,902,258 |
| 6. | Ford Foundation | NY | 126 | 53,118,242 | 526,043,084 | 10.1 | 2,100,000 | 52,118,242 |
| 7. | Greater Kansas City Community Foundation | MO | 84 | 51,871,124 | 195,866,218 | 26.5 | – | 2,384,481 |
| 8. | Silicon Valley Community Foundation | CA | 309 | 49,363,497 | 1,357,397,640 | 3.6 | 265,000 | 27,226,383 |
| 9. | The Holland Foundation | NE | 15 | 41,810,847 | 63,926,761 | 65.4 | – | 41,540,150 |
| 10. | The Crawford Taylor Foundation | MO | 14 | 40,743,510 | 46,938,760 | 86.8 | – | 9,003,510 |
| 11. | The Moody Foundation | TX | 14 | 35,189,478 | 69,055,429 | 51.0 | 33,890,978 | 1,123,500 |
| 12. | The William Penn Foundation | PA | 62 | 31,066,450 | 206,885,592 | 15.0 | 7,919,000 | 29,658,950 |
| 13. | The Chicago Community Trust | IL | 375 | 27,078,633 | 212,695,792 | 12.7 | 1,792,000 | 12,934,368 |
| 14. | The Brown Foundation, Inc. | TX | 178 | 25,959,500 | 62,723,518 | 41.4 | 16,668,000 | 24,033,000 |
| 15. | The Freedom Forum, Inc. | DC | 2 | 24,107,950 | 24,107,950 | 100.0 | – | 24,107,950 |
| 16. | The Shubert Foundation, Inc. | NY | 472 | 23,965,000 | 25,440,000 | 94.2 | – | 23,460,000 |
| 17. | Kinder Foundation | TX | 19 | 23,741,277 | 39,307,034 | 60.4 | 19,816,340 | 1,285,699 |
| 18. | The San Francisco Foundation | CA | 169 | 23,248,213 | 129,977,462 | 17.9 | 1,888,000 | 11,478,202 |
| 19. | Doris Duke Charitable Foundation | NY | 72 | 22,240,281 | 78,594,881 | 28.3 | – | 13,396,593 |
| 20. | Walton Family Foundation | AR | 60 | 21,903,846 | 440,054,621 | 5.0 | – | 6,519,126 |
| 21. | The Wallace Foundation | NY | 82 | 21,213,188 | 116,289,024 | 18.2 | – | 12,332,484 |
| 22. | The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation | CA | 111 | 20,698,370 | 362,823,345 | 5.7 | 2,075,000 | 19,485,000 |
| 23. | John Templeton Foundation | PA | 49 | 19,803,279 | 149,949,450 | 13.2 | – | 13,051,100 |
| 24. | Avenir Foundation, Inc. | CO | 9 | 19,261,284 | 48,578,238 | 39.7 | – | 19,261,284 |
| 25. | Robert W. Woodruff Foundation | GA | 4 | 18,394,763 | 141,741,856 | 13.0 | 18,394,763 | 16,144,763 |
| Total | 3,491 | $1,188,510,905 | $6,223,412,661 | 19.1 | $130,767,105 | $897,011,612 |
Source: Foundation Center by Candid, 2019. Based on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by 1,000 of the largest foundations representing approximately half of total giving by all US foundations.
* Grants may provide capital support and other types of support. In these cases, grants would be counted in both totals. Figures include only grants that could be coded as providing specific types of support.
Top foundations by share of arts giving out of overall giving. Of the foundations that committed large percentages of their grant dollars to arts and culture, many are the smaller foundations in the sample (table 4). Among the top one hundred foundations ranked by share of arts giving out of total giving, about half (fifty-two) gave less than $5 million in total arts grant dollars in 2016.
TABLE 4. Top 35 foundations by share of arts giving out of overall giving, 2016
| Rank | Foundation | State | Fdn Type* | Number of arts grants | Arts grant dollars | Total grant dollars | Arts as percent of total dollars | Arts capital support dollars** | Arts other types of support dollars** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Freedom Forum | DC | OP | 2 | $24,107,950 | $24,107,950 | 100.0 | – | $24,107,950 |
| 2. | David H. Koch Charitable Foundation | KS | IN | 1 | 10,000,000 | 10,000,000 | 100.0 | $10,000,000 | – |
| 3. | The Carmel Hill Fund | NY | IN | 19 | 6,724,927 | 6,724,927 | 100.0 | – | 6,724,927 |
| 4. | Johnson Art and Education Foundation | NJ | IN | 2 | 5,833,006 | 5,833,006 | 100.0 | – | 5,833,006 |
| 5. | Bernard Osher Foundation | CA | IN | 5 | 4,811,649 | 4,811,649 | 100.0 | – | 4,811,649 |
| 6. | The SHS Foundation | NY | IN | 44 | 6,132,166 | 6,257,166 | 98.0 | – | 1,972,166 |
| 7. | Samuel & Jean Frankel Foundation | MI | IN | 4 | 161,963,059 | 166,148,059 | 97.5 | – | 161,463,059 |
| 8. | Jerome Foundation Inc. | MN | IN | 68 | 2,819,496 | 2,890,596 | 97.5 | – | 2,819,496 |
| 9. | Colburn Foundation | CA | IN | 58 | 6,264,500 | 6,514,500 | 96.2 | 10,000 | 1,067,000 |
| 10. | The Shubert Foundation, Inc. | NY | IN | 472 | 23,965,000 | 25,440,000 | 94.2 | – | 23,460,000 |
| 11. | The Walt and Lilly Disney Foundation | CA | IN | 2 | 7,653,544 | 8,138,544 | 94.0 | – | – |
| 12. | Lloyd Rigler Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation | CA | IN | 15 | 6,315,000 | 6,894,560 | 91.6 | – | 335,000 |
| 13. | Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc. | NY | IN | 152 | 10,955,000 | 11,970,000 | 91.5 | – | 2,350,000 |
| 14. | The Crawford Taylor Foundation | MO | IN | 14 | 40,743,510 | 46,938,760 | 86.8 | – | 9,003,510 |
| 15. | The Philecology Foundation | TX | IN | 1 | 10,998,408 | 13,020,408 | 84.5 | – | – |
| 16. | Dunard Fund USA, Ltd. | IL | CS | 10 | 6,938,290 | 8,389,400 | 82.7 | – | 6,938,290 |
| 17. | Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation | MO | IN | 77 | 8,637,762 | 10,490,262 | 82.3 | 1,070,000 | 5,616,780 |
| 18. | Millicent and Eugene Bell Foundation | MA | IN | 1 | 3,500,000 | 4,372,000 | 80.1 | – | 3,500,000 |
| 19. | J Paul Getty Trust | CA | OP | 120 | 10,820,954 | 13,549,762 | 79.9 | – | 9,493,712 |
| 20. | Gilder Foundation, Inc. | NY | IN | 29 | 16,625,000 | 21,131,000 | 78.7 | – | 20,000 |
| 21. | The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts | NY | IN | 137 | 9,714,889 | 12,350,994 | 78.7 | 100,000 | 8,217,389 |
| 22. | Arison Arts Foundation | FL | IN | 14 | 6,193,879 | 7,948,879 | 77.9 | – | 6,193,879 |
| 23. | Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, Inc. | AR | IN | 12 | 2,114,000 | 2,781,210 | 76.0 | 700,000 | 1,614,000 |
| 24. | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | NY | IN | 267 | 208,595,850 | 285,451,300 | 73.1 | 16,779,100 | 205,556,350 |
| 25. | The Packard Humanities Institute | CA | OP | 14 | 7,583,212 | 10,731,112 | 70.7 | 262,600 | 7,288,612 |
| 26. | The Kovner Foundation | FL | IN | 10 | 9,381,081 | 13,572,671 | 69.1 | – | 1,725,000 |
| 27. | Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation | OR | IN | 28 | 2,188,000 | 3,170,800 | 69.0 | 200,000 | 780,000 |
| 28. | Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation | MI | IN | 12 | 7,233,000 | 10,894,500 | 66.4 | – | 7,233,000 |
| 29. | The Holland Foundation | NE | IN | 15 | 41,810,847 | 63,926,761 | 65.4 | – | 41,540,150 |
| 30. | Alphawood Foundation | IL | IN | 113 | 16,439,194 | 25,541,117 | 64.4 | 9,759,400 | 16,064,794 |
| 31. | Wilf Family Foundation | NJ | IN | 3 | 820,000 | 1,275,000 | 64.3 | – | – |
| 32. | The Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation | OK | IN | 6 | 5,150,000 | 8,075,055 | 63.8 | 5,000,000 | 5,060,000 |
| 33. | Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation | MA | IN | 4 | 5,100,500 | 8,090,500 | 63.0 | 1,600,000 | 1,630,500 |
| 34. | The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund | VA | IN | 8 | 5,460,000 | 8,762,000 | 62.3 | 5,335,000 | 125,000 |
| 35. | Champagne Family Charitable Trust | IN | IN | 1 | 60,000 | 98,500 | 60.9 | – | 60,000 |
Source: Foundation Center by Candid, 2019. Based on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by 1,000 of the largest foundations representing approximately half of total giving by all US foundations.
* IN = Independent; OP = Operating; CS = Corporate
** Grants may provide capital support and other types of support. In these cases, grants would be counted in both totals. Figures include only grants that could be coded as providing specific types of support.
Giving for International Cultural Exchange
Grant dollars supporting international cultural exchange increased 42 percent between 2015 and 2016 among a matched subset of funders. In 2016, foundations awarded 118 grants related to international cultural exchange totaling $20.2 million. The largest award was a $3 million grant from the Ford Foundation to the Belgium-based Culture Resource to provide general support to promote artistic creativity in the Arab region, build the capacity of nascent and emerging cultural institutions, and enhance the organization’s growth.
Reina Mukai joined Candid’s (formerly Foundation Center) research department in 2006 and currently serves as Knowledge Services manager. In this role, she works on a range of research and data-driven projects. Mukai has authored numerous reports on national, regional, and special-topic trends in the field of philanthropy, among them Giving in Illinois, “Arts Funding Snapshot: GIA’s Annual Research on Support for Arts and Culture,” and the Key Fact Sheet series. She also works with partners on custom consulting services and research projects.
NOTES
- Foundation Center by Candid’s 2016 FC 1000 set includes all of the grants of $10,000 or more reported by 1,000 of the largest US independent, corporate, community, and grantmaking operating foundations by total giving. For community foundations, the set includes only discretionary grants and donor-advised grants (when provided by the funder). The set excludes grants to individuals. This set accounts for approximately half of giving by all of the roughly 86,000 active US grantmaking foundations. Grant amounts may represent the full authorized amount of the grant or the amount paid in that year, depending on the information made available by each foundation.
- Between 2015 and 2016, the composition of the FC1000 has changed, which could distort year-to-year fluctuations in grant dollars targeting specific issue areas. To account for these potential distortions year to year, Candid (formerly Foundation Center) has analyzed changes in giving based on a subset of 883 funders for which we had 2015 and 2016 data.
- Included within the humanities is funding for art history, history and archaeology, classical and foreign languages, linguistics, literature, philosophy, and theology.
- Included within historic preservation is support for archaeology, art history, modern and classical languages, philosophy, ethics, theology, and comparative religion.
- Included within multidisciplinary arts is support for multidisciplinary centers, arts councils, artist’s services, arts administration, arts exchange, and arts education.
- The median — meaning that half of the grants are above, and half are below the amount — is generally acknowledged to be a more representative measure of the typical grant than the mean, or “average,” because the median is not influenced by extreme high or low amounts.