Broad Art Foundation

The Broad Art Foundation occupies an unusual position in arts philanthropy: it is primarily an operating foundation that built, endowed, and continues to fund The Broad contemporary art museum in downtown Los Angeles, which opened to free public admission in September 2015. This structure makes it fundamentally different from external grant-making foundations that respond to open applications. Organizations approaching this funder must understand that reality before investing staff time in outreach.

The foundation was established in 1984 by Eli and Edythe Broad as a lending library for contemporary art. Over four decades it has executed more than 9,000 artwork loans to 550+ museums worldwide — this lending program is its primary service to the arts ecosystem and its most direct point of public engagement. The collection holds over 2,000 works by approximately 200 artists, concentrated in postwar and contemporary American and European art.

Joanne Heyler, Founding Director and Chief Curator (compensated at $320,000 annually in recent filings), is the dominant intellectual and operational force at the foundation. Edythe Broad serves as trustee alongside Gerun Riley, Julie Baker, Peter Adamson, Paul Frimmer, and Bruce E. Karatz. Eli Broad, the co-founder and primary philanthropic driver, passed away on April 30, 2021.

The foundation's `preselected_only` designation in philanthropy databases confirms it does not respond to unsolicited grant requests. Of the $53.7M in documented grants across 25 awards in available records, $53M (98.7%) went to The Broad museum as operating support. The remaining grants — ranging from $2,500 to $150,000 — went to major peer institutions with longstanding Broad family relationships: MoMA, LACMA, the Hammer Museum, Portland Art Museum, and MOCA Los Angeles.

First-time institutions hoping to engage this funder should begin with the Art Lending Program rather than seeking financial grants. The foundation evaluates loan requests on exhibition relevance, audience breadth (particularly underserved communities), prior loan commitments, and artwork fragility. Institutions that demonstrate responsible stewardship of loaned artworks across multiple lending relationships are best positioned for any future financial engagement — though that path remains narrow and unpredictable for external applicants.

The Broad Art Foundation's documented grant-making reveals extreme concentration and a foundation operating primarily in sustaining mode rather than as an active external funder. Total documented giving across 25 grants reaches $53.7M, but $53M of that — 98.7% — represents operating support to The Broad, the museum the foundation itself created. Strip out those internal grants and total external giving amounts to approximately $725,583 across roughly 20 awards.

External grants cluster in three distinct tiers: - $100,000-$150,000 tier: Los Angeles County Museum of Art ($150,000, exhibition support), Museum of Modern Art ($150,000, general support), Portland Art Museum ($100,000, exhibition support) - $47,000-$50,000 tier: Hammer Museum ($50,000 general support; $48,500 in a separate period), Museum of Contemporary Art LA ($50,000; $47,083 in a separate period) - Under $20,000: Creative Time ($15,000), 826LA ($10,000 across two grants), Art Practice ($10,000), California Institute of the Arts ($5,000), Academy Museum Foundation ($5,000), Foundation Art & Preservation Embassies ($2,500), Whitney Museum of American Art ($2,500)

Geographic distribution of all 25 grants: California 76% (19 grants), New York 12% (3 grants), Oregon 8% (2 grants — Portland Art Museum), Washington DC 4% (1 grant).

Annual total giving trend (IRS filings): - FY2014: $14.3M | FY2015: $15.9M (museum construction/launch era) - FY2019: $6.1M | FY2020: $4.4M | FY2021: $4.7M - FY2022: $4.7M | FY2023: $2.0M | FY2024: $5.1M

The sharp decline from $15.9M (FY2015) to the $2-5M range reflects the end of the museum's launch-phase capital needs. The FY2023 low ($2M, with only $82,083 in grants actually paid) stands out as a dramatically reduced year. FY2024's recovery to $5.1M — the highest since FY2019 — merits monitoring, though without grant-level data it is unclear how much, if any, went to external recipients versus The Broad's operations. Total assets grew from $584M (2015) to $786M (2024), supported by a $132.6M estate contribution in FY2021 following Eli Broad's death.

The following table compares the Broad Art Foundation to four peer foundations from its asset-size cohort, all operating in the arts and culture space.

The Broad Art Foundation sits in a peer group of large, institutionally anchored arts foundations where the endowment primarily serves an operating entity rather than responding to external applicants. Art Bridges Inc. (founded by Alice Walton) is the closest structural analogue — both focus on expanding access to significant contemporary art collections — though Art Bridges is considerably more active in proactive regional partnerships and has explicitly partnered with institutions outside major metros. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation ($522M) is meaningfully different: it runs a more accessible grant program supporting individual artists and organizations addressing social and environmental issues, with periodic open application cycles. For institutions seeking external grants from a major contemporary art foundation, Rauschenberg is a far more viable target than Broad. The Kimbell Art Foundation, like Broad Art Foundation, functions primarily as a museum endowment with no documented external grant-making program.

No announcements of new grant programs, open RFPs, or expanded external funding were found in web research covering 2025-2026. The foundation's public-facing activity is concentrated entirely on programming at The Broad museum.

At The Broad, the most notable exhibitions in the 2025-2026 period are Robert Therrien: This is a Story (November 22, 2025 – April 5, 2026), drawing on the foundation's collection of Therrien's signature oversized domestic objects, and the forthcoming Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, announced as the artist's first solo museum exhibition in Southern California. Both reflect the foundation's collecting priorities and reinforce its commitment to artists whose work it has championed across decades.

The most consequential foundational change in recent years remains the death of Eli Broad on April 30, 2021, at age 87. Broad was the primary philanthropic force behind both the Art Foundation and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. In FY2021, the foundation received $132.6M in contributions (almost certainly estate transfers), lifting total assets from $604M to $727M — growing further to $786M by FY2024. Edythe Broad remains a trustee and the Broad family's philanthropic presence continues through foundation governance.

The launch of broadfoundationreport.org as a 50th anniversary retrospective site documents the foundation's grantmaking from 1967 onward and represents the most complete public accounting of its historical giving. Whether this transparency effort signals any shift toward broader external engagement is unclear; no structural changes to the grant program have been announced publicly.

This foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications. Every engagement strategy must start from that premise. The following advice is specific to the Broad Art Foundation's documented practices and structure.

Art Loan Requests: The Realistic Entry Point The foundation's lending program is the primary path for any institution seeking a relationship. Contact Anne Mersmann, Director of Collections Management, at amersmann@thebroad.org to initiate a loan inquiry. A strong loan request includes: - The specific artworks requested and their relevance to your exhibition's curatorial argument - Your institution's accreditation status or equivalent qualifications in facilities, climate control, and security - Exhibition timeline, venues, and expected audience reach — the foundation explicitly prioritizes loans that reach broad or underserved audiences - Confirmation that your institution will cover all packing, transportation, handling, and insurance costs (the foundation does not subsidize borrower expenses)

For Financial Grant Consideration External financial grants are rare, small, and entirely relationship-driven. The documented range is $2,500 to $150,000, with $47,000-$150,000 going to major established institutions (LACMA, Hammer Museum, MoMA, Portland Art Museum). To be remotely in consideration: - Establish a multi-year borrowing relationship first — financial requests without prior lending engagement have no basis - Be a significant established art museum, not an emerging organization, community arts group, or artist service organization - Los Angeles-based institutions have a substantial advantage — 76% of external grants by count have gone to California organizations - Frame any financial inquiry around exhibition support or general operating needs — these are the two documented grant purposes for external recipients

Timing and Language There is no published grant cycle, deadline, or application portal. The grants page at broadfoundationreport.org is an historical archive. Do not submit a formal proposal without prior relationship and explicit staff invitation. Use language aligned with the foundation's founding mission: public access to contemporary art, educational programming, geographic reach, and audience diversity — particularly for communities underserved by major arts institutions.