Kentucky Humanities Council Inc
Lexington, KY · EIN 31-0981031. Reported 56 grants totalling $964,765 to 49 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. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
- How spread out its giving is. 49 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 much its list changes. 9% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $19,877. Half of what it reported fell between $14,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $30,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appalshop Inc | Jenkins, KY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky Inc | Hindman, KY | $38,983 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Hindman Settlement School Inc | Hindman, KY | $38,228 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Governors Scholars Program Inc | Frankfort, KY | $37,910 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Kentucky Historical Society Foundation Inc | Frankfort, KY | $37,640 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Red River Historical Society | Clay City, KY | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Three Forks Historical Museum Inc | Beattyville, KY | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Carnegie Literacy Center Inc | Lexington, KY | $21,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Kentucky Mansions Preservation Foundation Inc | Lexington, KY | $21,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Asia Institute Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Berry Center Inc | New Castle, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Henry Clay Memorial Foundation | Lexington, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Highlands Museum & Discovery Inc | Ashland, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Historic Locust Grove Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| I Was Here Inc | Lexington, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| International Bluegrass Music Museum Inc | Owensboro, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Kentucky Center for African American Heritage | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Kentucky Railway Museum Inc | New Haven, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation | Irvine, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Kmac Museum Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Knott County Public Library | Hindman, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Muhammad Ali Museum and Education | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Pennyroyal Arts Council Inc | Hopkinsville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Portland Museum Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Reckoning Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Shakertown at Pleasant Hill Kentucky Inc | Harrodsburg, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Simpson County Historical Society | Franklin, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Filson Historical Society Inc | Louisville, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Wayland Historical Society Inc | Wayland, KY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Historic Russellville Inc | Russellville, KY | $19,755 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Owsley Brown Frazier Historical Arms Museum Foundation Inc | Louisville, KY | $19,625 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Georgetown-Scott County Museum Inc | Georgetown, KY | $19,611 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lincoln Museum Inc | Hodgenville, KY | $19,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Breathitt County Museum Inc | Jackson, KY | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Mt Vernon-Rockcastle County Tourist Commission Inc | Mount Vernon, KY | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| St James Court Historic Foundation Inc | Louisville, KY | $16,778 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Paramount Arts Center Inc | Ashland, KY | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Barren County Historical Foundation Inc | Glasgow, KY | $15,900 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lexarts Inc | Lexington, KY | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lexington Childrens Museum Inc | Lexington, KY | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Friends of Oxmoor Foundation Inc | Louisville, KY | $11,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Meade County Historical & Archaeological Preservation Societ | Webster, KY | $11,435 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Bell County Historical Society Inc | Middlesboro, KY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Harrodsburg Historical Society | Harrodsburg, KY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lexington Writers Room | Lexington, KY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The National Quilt Museum Inc | Paducah, KY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Art Center of the Bluegrass Inc | Danville, KY | $5,900 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Bardstown-Nelson Co African-American Heritage Museum | Bardstown, KY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Maysville & Mason County Library Historical & Scientific Associatio | Maysville, KY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
5 of 49 (10%) 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.
- Red River Historical Society
TO ASSIST HUMANITIES-BASED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC - Three Forks Historical Museum Inc
TO ASSIST HUMANITIES-BASED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND FOR THE FLOOD AREA - Carnegie Literacy Center Inc
TO ASSIST HUMANITIES-BASED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND FOR ART EXHIBIT FOR KENTUCKY ARTIST - Governor's Scholars Program Foundation Inc
PROGRAM FOR OUTSTANDING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KENTUCKY - Governors Scholars Prog Fou
Outstanding KY High School Students
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 36 of 49 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 | 47 | $817,765 | $19,755 |
| 2021 | 1 | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 6 | $110,000 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 2 | $27,000 | $13,500 |
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 $19,877 -- 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 Kentucky.
- 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 Kentucky Humanities Council Inc'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 2 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: 206 East Maxwell Street, Lexington, KY, 40508.
EIN 31-0981031 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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