GrantmakersNew York

Creative Capital Foundation

New York, NY · EIN 31-1605982. Reported 56 grants totalling $1,159,545 to 32 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$1,159,545granted, 2020-2023
45%of grantees funded again the next year
22%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Creative Capital Foundation, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 22% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 45% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$10,000 - $25,000
48 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
United States Artists IncChicago, IL$250,000112020
Social Good Fund IncRichmond, CA$52,000332023
Sbdny IncWhite Plains, NY$50,000222023
Scapegoat Garden IncHartford, CT$50,000332023
Uniondocs IncRidgewood, NY$50,000332023
Center for Independent Documentary IncCambridge, MA$47,500332022
Documentary Educational Resources IncWatertown, MA$45,000222023
The Southern Documentary FundDurham, NC$45,000222022
Viver Brasil Dance CompanyLos Angeles, CA$45,000222022
Museum of Human AchievementAustin, TX$40,000222022
AgitarteCambridge, MA$35,000332022
Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability InitiativeNew Orleans, LA$35,000222022
Pick Up Performance Company IncNew York, NY$30,045222023
Bluebird Cultural InitiativeOmaha, NE$30,000222022
Cousin Collective IncLoma Linda, CA$30,000222021
Foundation for Independent Artists IncBrooklyn, NY$30,000222021
Interfaith Working GroupPhiladelphia, PA$30,000222021
StorylineBrooklyn, NY$30,000222022
The Tank LtdNew York, NY$30,000222022
FEATH3R Theory IncBrooklyn, NY$25,000112021
Pioneer Winter Collective IncMiami, FL$25,000222023
Aubin Pictures IncNew York, NY$15,000112021
Cave Organization IncBrooklyn, NY$15,000112022
LiznbowMiami, FL$15,000112022
Moving Parts Crip InstituteN Hollywood, CA$15,000112023
Participant IncorporatedNew York, NY$15,000112021
Portland Institute for Contemporary ArtPortland, OR$15,000112020
Rose Tree Productions IncAtlanta, GA$15,000112022
Santa Fe Film InstituteSanta Fe, NM$15,000112023
Yaa Samar Dance TheaterBrooklyn, NY$15,000112022
Sustainable Native Communities CollaborativeSanta Fe, NM$10,000112020
Walking Iris MediaSan Francisco, CA$10,000112021

19 of 32 (59%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 9 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 28 of 32 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
25 orgs
Education
1 org
Housing & Shelter
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202011$400,000$15,000
202118$287,500$15,000
202218$307,000$15,000
20239$165,045$15,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

26% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

New York
$305K
Illinois
$250K
California
$152K
Massachusetts
$128K
Connecticut
$50K
North Carolina
$45K
Texas
$40K
Florida
$40K

Down to the city

Chicago, IL
$250K
Brooklyn, NY
$115K
New York, NY
$90K
Cambridge, MA
$82K
Richmond, CA
$52K
White Plains, NY
$50K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

The Ford Foundation13 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund13 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc11 shared recipientsNew England Foundation for the Arts11 shared recipientsThe Andrew W Mellon Foundation10 shared recipientsTides Foundation9 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $15,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding arts & culture in New YorkEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in New YorkEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding arts & culture in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Creative Capital Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 15 Maiden Lane 18TH Floor, New York, NY, 10038.

EIN 31-1605982 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.