Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone
New York, NY · EIN 13-3808669. Reported 96 grants totalling $6,608,684 to 52 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S310) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 52 distinct organizations, with 23% 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.
- How much its list changes. 50% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $30,750. Half of what it reported fell between $18,750 and $50,000; the smallest was $6,667 and the largest $495,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Inc | New York, NY | $1,506,400 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Business Resource & Investment Service Center | New York, NY | $911,462 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Apollo Theater Foundation Inc | New York, NY | $495,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation | New York, NY | $472,113 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Firelight Media Inc | New York, NY | $262,636 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Museum of the City of New York | New York, NY | $240,216 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Healthcare Industry Grant Corporation | New York, NY | $208,897 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Hip Hop Theater Festival Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $198,150 | 4 | 3 | 2022 |
| Per Scholas Inc | Bronx, NY | $193,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Maysles Institute Inc | New York, NY | $191,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Visual Arts Research & Resource Ctr Relating to the Caribbean Inc | New York, NY | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Soharlem Inc | New York, NY | $90,433 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Harlem Stage Inc | New York, NY | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance | New York, NY | $90,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Classical Theatre of Harlem | New York, NY | $82,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Sugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art and Storytelling | New York, NY | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Emerge 125 Inc | New York, NY | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| The National Jazz Museum in Harlem | New York, NY | $70,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Morris Jumel Mansion Inc | New York, NY | $65,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Kaarta LLC Loan Grant Forgiveness | New York, NY | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mama Foundation for the Arts Inc | New York, NY | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Harlem Business Alliance Inc | New York, NY | $64,600 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance of New York Inc | New York, NY | $63,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Forces of Nature Inc | New York, NY | $62,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Black Public Media Inc | New York, NY | $60,000 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Harlem School of the Arts Inc | New York, NY | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Harlem Arts Alliance | New York, NY | $55,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Jose Limon Dance Foundation | New York, NY | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Research Foundation of the City University of New York | New York, NY | $50,360 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Advance Nyc Inc | Floral Park, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Envoie Project LLC | New York, NY | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Jazzmobile Inc | New York, NY | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Harlem Chamber Players Inc | New York, NY | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Peoples Theatre Project Inc | New York, NY | $37,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Futuro Media Group | New York, NY | $33,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Museum for African Art | New York, NY | $32,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Melissa Sandor Inc | New York, NY | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Black Theatre Workshop Incorporated | New York, NY | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Harlem Business Alliance | New York, NY | $27,250 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Community Impact | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Community League of the Heights Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New York Urban League Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Strive International Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Youth Action Programs and Homes Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hot Bread Kitchen Ltd | New York, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lawyers Alliance for New York | New York, NY | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Amigos Del Museo Del Barrio | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Dance Theatre of Harlem Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| East River Development Alliance Inc | Long Is City, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Puerto Rican Workshop Inc | Bronx, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Studio Museum in Harlem | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Denham Wolf Real Estate Servives Inc | New York, NY | $6,667 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
28 of 52 (54%) 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.
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.
- Brisc FY22 Admin Grant Q1 2 3 &4
TO COVER ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES - Per Scholas Inc
TECH SECTOR EMPLOYMENT INTIATIVE - Hip-Hop Theater Festival (hi-Arts)
CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVE GRANT - Soharlem Inc
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT &IMPLEMENTATION PLAN - Visual Arts Research
COVID-19 PANDEMIC GRANT TO SUPPORT CONSULTANT DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT & ARTISTS RETENTION PROJECT - Advance Nyc Inc
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONSULTANCY FOR FUNDRAISING STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT OF DEPARTMENT PROCESSES
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 40 of 52 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 12 | $1,410,089 | $50,180 |
| 2021 | 34 | $2,468,548 | $34,000 |
| 2022 | 32 | $1,900,705 | $30,750 |
| 2023 | 18 | $829,342 | $25,000 |
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
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $30,750 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
- 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.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone'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.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 12 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 6 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 55 West 125TH Street 11TH Floor, New York, NY, 10027.
EIN 13-3808669 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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