Howard County Arts Council
Ellicott City, MD · EIN 52-1219079. Reported 150 grants totalling $2,932,080 to 38 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 Howard County Arts Council, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A26Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 38 distinct organizations, with 11% 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. 94% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $14,622. Half of what it reported fell between $6,000 and $29,587; the smallest was $5,125 and the largest $75,517. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts Inc | Columbia, MD | $310,145 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Columbia Festival Inc | Columbia, MD | $269,636 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Columbia Chamber Orchestra of Howard County | Ellicott City, MD | $266,363 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Chamber Music Maryland Inc | Columbia, MD | $220,081 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Kinetics Dance Theatre Inc | Ellicott City, MD | $189,634 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Inc | Baltimore, MD | $173,078 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| The Maryland Zoological Society Inc | Baltimore, MD | $154,676 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Columbia Pro Cantare Ltd | Ellicott City, MD | $153,477 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Baltimore Museum of Art Inc | Baltimore, MD | $112,063 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Maryland Science Center | Baltimore, MD | $103,116 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Center Stage Associates Inc | Baltimore, MD | $102,891 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Walters Art Museum Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $80,121 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Baltimore Childrens Museum Inc | Baltimore, MD | $79,149 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Howard County Poetry & Literary Society | Columbia, MD | $76,104 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| National Aquarium Inc | Baltimore, MD | $75,207 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Baltimore Museum of Industry | Baltimore, MD | $72,574 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Chesapeake Shakespeare Company | Baltimore, MD | $62,461 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Misako Ballet Company | Columbia, MD | $41,264 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| The American Visionary Art Museum Inc | Baltimore, MD | $35,720 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Maryland Winds | Ellicott City, MD | $28,921 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Howard County Chinese School Inc | Columbia, MD | $26,537 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Silhouette Stages Inc | Ellicott City, MD | $25,360 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Howard County Public School System | Ellicott City, MD | $24,330 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Hopeworks of Howard County Inc | Columbia, MD | $24,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lpr Enterprises Inc | Columbia, MD | $23,913 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Columbia Bands Inc | Columbia, MD | $23,815 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| First Evangelical Lutheran Church | Ellicott City, MD | $22,833 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Central Maryland Singers | Clarksville, MD | $22,020 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Howard Community College | Columbia, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Muslim Family Center Incorporated | Columbia, MD | $17,710 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Glen Mar United Methodist | Ellicott City, MD | $16,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Manneqart Inc | Columbia, MD | $12,553 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Indian Cultural Association of Howard County Inc | Ellicott City, MD | $12,048 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Howard Community College Educational Foundation Inc | Columbia, MD | $12,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Winter Growth Inc | Olney, MD | $12,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Howard County Summer Theatre Inc | Ellicott City, MD | $11,893 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Blossoms of Hope the Howard County Cherry Tree Project Inc | Ellicott City, MD | $11,887 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| EC250 | Catonsville, MD | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
36 of 38 (95%) 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.
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.
- Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts
HOWARD COUNTY RISE RELIEF AND COMMUNITY ARTS DEVELOPMENT. - Columbia Fesival
COMMUNITY ARTS DEVELOPMENT. - Columbia Orchestra
HOWARD COUNTY RISE RELIEF, COMMUNITY ARTS DEVELOPMENT, AND JRT SUBSIDY. - Kinetics Dance Theatre
COMMUNITY ARTS DEVELOPMENT AND JRT SUBSIDY. - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
OUTREACH HOWARD AND BALTIMORE CITY ARTS AND CULTURAL GRANT. - Baltimore Museum of Art
BALTIMORE CITY ARTS AND CULTURAL GRANT.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 30 of 38 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 23 | $582,638 | $20,540 |
| 2021 | 29 | $555,037 | $14,642 |
| 2022 | 32 | $591,549 | $13,771 |
| 2023 | 33 | $600,024 | $11,617 |
| 2024 | 33 | $602,832 | $10,000 |
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 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.
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 $14,622 -- 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 Maryland.
- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Howard County Arts Council'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 33 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: 8360 Court Avenue, Ellicott City, MD, 21043.
EIN 52-1219079 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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