Arts Services Initiative of Western New
Buffalo, NY · EIN 45-4531129. Reported 41 grants totalling $535,000 to 41 organizations across tax years 2024, 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 Arts Services Initiative of Western New, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 41 distinct organizations, with 4% 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 big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $20,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alleyway Theatre Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Assembly House 150 Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ballet Artists of Wny Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Arts Studio | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Maritime Center Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo String Works Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community Music School of Buffalo | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| David a Howe Public Library | Wellsville, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Graycliff Conservancy Inc | Derby, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Infinity Visual and Performing Arts Inc | Jamestown, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Roycroft Campus Corporation | East Aurora, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Niagara Arts & Cultural Center Inc | Niagara Falls, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Springville Center for the Arts Inc | Springville, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Young Audiences of Western New York Inc | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| 1891 Fredonia Opera House | Fredonia, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bfm Arts Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Chamber Players Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Freedom Gardens Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Media Resources Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Opera Unlimited Incorporated | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Collaborative Center for Social Innovation Inc | Lancaster, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cuba Circulating Library Assoc | Cuba, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Enlightenment Bookstore and Literary Arts Center Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fenton Historical Society | Jamestown, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Hamburg Natural History Society Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mental Health Association of Erie County | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Music Is Art | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Net Positive Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Nusantara Arts Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pappy Martin Legacy Jazz Collective | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Second Generation Theatre Company Inc | Kenmore, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stitch Buffalo Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Theatre of Youth Company Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ujima Company Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| American Legion Band of the Tonawandas Inc | Tonawanda, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Chautauqua Regional Youth Symphony | Jamestown, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gwbn Inc | Buffalo, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kenan Center Inc | Lockport, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Presbytery of Western New York | Buffalo, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Town of Boston | Boston, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
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.
- David a Howe Public Library
ASI 2024 GENERAL OPERATING GRANT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 34 of 41 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.
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 $10,000 -- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Arts Services Initiative of Western New's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 49 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 3 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: 2495 Main Street 401, Buffalo, NY, 14214.
EIN 45-4531129 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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