The Creative Capital Foundation is an organization that provides artist development services. It offers services such as supporting artists and projects, facilitating artist community, consulting, and promotion. ¹ As of April 2025, the Creative Capital Foundation website says it has awarded $55 million in grants and services to artists and serves more than 250,000 artists each year since its founding. ²

In 2025, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asserting that the Creative Capital Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Lagrant Foundation “intentionally” discriminated against white people. AAER president Edward Blum alleged that these groups engaged in race-based discrimination while enjoying tax-exempt status. ³

Background

The Creative Capital Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides artist development services. It offers services such as supporting artists and projects and facilitating artist community, consulting, and promotion. ¹

The Creative Capital Foundation, also known as Creative Capital, says it considers artists entrepreneurs. So, it adopted venture capital concepts for its financial support model. ^{4 5} The Los Angeles Times reported that the organization uses a “a mix of old-style grant-making and post-dot-com venture capitalism” to fund art. ⁶

The organization also focuses on teaching artists business skills for the art industry. ⁶

As of April 2025, the Creative Capital Foundation website says it has awarded $55 million in grants and services to artists and serves more than 250,000 artists each year since its founding. ²

After the National Endowment for the Arts stopped directly funding individual artists, Archibald L. Giddies, then-president of the Andy Warhol Foundation, helped launch Creative Capital to fill some of the gap. Creative Capital shares space with the Warhol Foundation in New York. ⁶

If the funded art project makes money, the artists pay dividends back to Creative Capital. ⁶

The group gives the Creative Capital Award to individual artists for the creation of innovative, art in visual arts, performing arts, film, and literature. The organization also gives out the State-of-the-Art Prize, which aims to recognize one artist residing in each U.S. state and its territories. ⁷

In April 2020, Creative Capital was among other nonprofits to launch Artist Relief, an initiative to address the needs of the creative community in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The other organizations in the initiative included the Academy of American Poets, Artadia, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National Young Arts Foundation, and United States Artists. The effort initially distributed $13.5 million to 2,700 individuals, each getting $5,000 unrestricted grants. ⁸

Controversy

In 2025, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asserting that the Creative Capital Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Lagrant Foundation “intentionally” discriminated against white people. AAER president Edward Blum alleged these groups engaged in race-based discrimination while enjoying tax-exempt status. ³

The letter notes that Creative Capital teamed with the left-leaning Skoll Foundation and Kickstarter “to launch a $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund that backs projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators on the crowdfunding platform.” ³

The AAER alleged the Creative Capital Foundation’s “Creative Capital Forward Fund” contributed up to $700,000 in grants and career support solely to Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic creators. This explicitly excluded white artists, the AAER contended in the letter. ⁹

Grantmaking

In January 2025, the Creative Capital Foundation announced annual grants of $2.45 million allotted to 55 artists for 49 individual projects. The foundation stressed that 75 percent of the grant recipients were “artists of color,” 56 percent “identify as women,” while another 18 percent “identify as gender non-conforming, transgender, or nonbinary.” The group said 11 percent were artists with disabilities. Recipients’ ages ranged from 29 and 72 years old representing 18 U.S. states and 29 cities. ¹⁰

The organization has spent more than $40 million on financial and advisory support on 511 projects representing 642 artists since its founding. ⁵

In 2023, the Creative Capital Foundation contributed $27,000 to the Social Good Fund. ¹¹

In 2023, the Creative Capital Foundation donated $25,000 to the Museum of Human Achievement. ¹¹

In 2023, the Creative Capital Foundation contributed $20,000 to the Southern Documentary Fund. ¹¹

Funding

In 2023, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts gave $1,760,037 to the Creative Capital Foundation to support its general operating budget and to fund its 10th year rent and expenses. The Warhol Foundation gave a $1,190,000 grant to the group to support its Arts Writing Initiative. ¹¹

In 2023, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation contributed $430,000 to the Creative Capital Foundation. ¹¹

Other financial supporters include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Lambent Foundation, and NYC Cultural Affairs. ¹²

Leadership

As of 2025, Christine Kuan was the president and executive director of the Creative Capital Foundation. ¹³

At that time, Reginald M. Browne was the chair of the board of directors of the Creative Capital Foundation. Colleen Jennings-Roggensack was the vice chair of the board. Lyda Kuth was the treasurer of the board of directors. Emi Kolawole was the secretary of the board of directors. ¹³

Creative Capital’s advisory council includes industry leaders, specialists, artists, and philanthropists. ¹² Catharine R. Stimpson and Fred Wilson were the co-chairs of the advisory council. ¹³

Leslie Singer was the chief operating officer at the Creative Capital Foundation. Michael Gibbons was the director of marketing and communications for the group. Emily Gerard was the director of development for the foundation. Jason Quincy Bailey was the director of strategy and audience engagement for the foundation. ¹¹

1. “Creative Capital Foundation.” Bloomberg. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0417481D:US
2. “About Creative Capital.” Culture Source. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://culturesource.org/creative-capital/
3. Lindquist, Spencer. “Bill Gates Foundation, Other Nonprofits Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Over Anti-White Discrimination.” Daily Wire. April 2, 2025. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-gates-foundation-other-nonprofits-could-lose-tax-exempt-status-over-anti-white-discrimination
4. “Creative Capital Foundation.” Animating Democracy. Accessed April 13, 2025. http://animatingdemocracy.org/organization/creative-capital-foundation
5. “Creative Capital Foundation.” Idealist. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/703d28d3895c43afb31c96a068e9530a-creative-capital-foundation-new-york
6. Martelle, Scott. “Creative types get a bit of business schooling.” Los Angeles Times. August 20, 2006. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-20-ca-capital20-story.html
7.  “Creative Capital Award.” Creative Capital. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://creative-capital.org/creative-capital-award/
8. Block, Fang. “Artist Relief Extends Grants for the Creative Community Through December.” Barons. September 24, 2020. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.barrons.com/articles/artist-relief-extends-grants-for-the-creative-community-through-december-01600975950
9. Press Release. “American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Request to IRS to Examine Racial Practices at Three Tax-Exempt Foundations: Gates Foundation, Lagrant Foundation and Creative Capital Foundation.” April 1, 2025. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-alliance-for-equal-rights-files-request-to-irs-to-examine-racial-practices-at-three-tax-exempt-foundations-gates-foundation-lagrant-foundation-and-creative-capital-foundation-302417428.html
10. Nayyar, Rhea. “Creative Capital Awards $2.45M to 55 Artists.” Hyperallergic. January 21, 2025. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://hyperallergic.com/984688/creative-capital-awards-millions-to-55-artists/
11. “Creative Capital Foundation.” Cause IQ. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/creative-capital,311605982/
12. “Support Artist Creating New Work.” Creative Capital. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://creative-capital.org/support-general/
13. “Board and Staff.” Creative Capital. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://creative-capital.org/board-staff/