Grantmakers › New York

Creative Capital Foundation

New York, NY · EIN 31-1605982. Reported 65 grants totalling $1,334,611 to 36 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

36organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$1,334,611granted, 2020-2024
39%of grantees funded again the next year
19%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. 36 distinct organizations, with 19% 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. 39% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

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
56 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
1 grant
$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
Sbdny IncWhite Plains, NY$60,000332024
Social Good Fund IncRichmond, CA$52,000332023
Scapegoat Garden IncHartford, CT$50,000332023
Uniondocs IncRidgewood, NY$50,000332023
Vision Into Arts Presents IncNew York, NY$50,000112024
Center for Independent Documentary IncCambridge, MA$47,500332022
Documentary Educational Resources IncWatertown, MA$45,000222023
Pioneer Winter Collective IncMiami, FL$45,000332024
The Southern Documentary FundDurham, NC$45,000222022
Viver Brasil Dance CompanyLos Angeles, CA$45,000222022
Pick Up Performance Company IncNew York, NY$43,270332024
Museum of Human AchievementAustin, TX$40,000222022
AgitarteCambridge, MA$35,000332022
Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability InitiativeNew Orleans, LA$35,000222022
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
Walking Iris MediaSan Francisco, CA$30,000222024
FEATH3R Theory IncBrooklyn, NY$25,000112021
Soho Repertory Theatre IncNew York, NY$21,841112024
Sustainable Native Communities CollaborativeSanta Fe, NM$20,000222024
Aubin Pictures IncNew York, NY$15,000112021
Cave Organization IncBrooklyn, NY$15,000112022
Found Sound NationRidgewood, NY$15,000112024
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
Protocinema IncNew York, NY$15,000112024
Rose Tree Productions IncAtlanta, GA$15,000112022
Santa Fe Film InstituteSanta Fe, NM$15,000112023
Yaa Samar Dance TheaterBrooklyn, NY$15,000112022

21 of 36 (58%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 11 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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 32 of 36 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
29 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
20249$175,066$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

32% 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
$430K
Illinois
$250K
California
$172K
Massachusetts
$128K
Florida
$60K
Connecticut
$50K
North Carolina
$45K
Texas
$40K

Down to the city

Chicago, IL
$250K
New York, NY
$190K
Brooklyn, NY
$115K
Cambridge, MA
$82K
Ridgewood, NY
$65K
White Plains, NY
$60K

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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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

The Ford Foundation15 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund15 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc15 shared recipientsNew England Foundation for the Arts14 shared recipientsThe Andrew W Mellon Foundation12 shared recipientsTides Foundation10 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 groupFoundations funding education in New YorkEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding arts & culture in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group

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 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 10 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 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: 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.

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