Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation
The Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation is a public charity based in Los Angeles, California. It supports arts-based education enrichment programs for disadvantaged children in kindergarten through eighth grade in Los Angeles County.
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation at a glance
In short: Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation gave $428K across 18 grants in 2025 (avg $24K), mostly in California. 27% of 2025 grantees were new. Source: 2025 IRS Form 990.
- Annual giving (2025)
- $427,500
- +29.5% vs 2024
- Grants made (2025)
- 18
- +5.9% vs 2024
- Average grant
- $23,750
- +22.3% vs 2024
- Median grant
- $30,000
- Total assets
- $4,442,814
- -1.4% vs 2024
- New grantees (estimate)
- 27% first-time grantees (4 of 15, 2025; small sample)
- Primary geography
- California (100% of itemized 2025 grant dollars)
- Latest 990 filing
- Form 990, 2025 View filing
Data from IRS Form 990, 2025; updated October 2026. New grantees are estimated by matching recipient names across years (methodology).
How to apply to Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation
- Invitation Only
-
The website accepts preliminary Letters of Interest from all organizations; full applications are by invitation only.
- Contact
Mailing address: 717 W Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 413-4130
Application details from Grantable's research on the foundation's public materials; confirm on its website before applying.
Who Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation funds
How this funder distributes its grants
Top Recipients
Top 10 recipients in 2025
The largest 2025 recipient was Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center ($50K across 2 grants). Together the top 10 received $340K.
Grant Size Distribution
90 grants across all recorded years
The most common grant size was under $50K: 78 grants of 90 (87%).
Geographic Focus
Where this funder awards grants
The foundation’s website specifies Los Angeles County for its arts-education grant program. All of its 2025 grant dollars went to recipients in California, according to the filing data.
Grant Distribution by State
Share of 2025 grant dollars across all 18 itemized grants.
States
Cities
Is Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation open to new grantees?
27%
first-time grantees, 2025
In 2025, 4 of 15 grantees (27%) were first-time recipients. With only 15 grantees, that is a small sample: one grantee more or less moves the share by about 7 points. First grants averaged $27K; repeat grants $29K. How we count
Medians: $30K first-time, $30K repeat.
Estimate from itemized grant lists in IRS Form 990 filings (2020–2025). Recipient names are matched across years, so a renamed or misspelled grantee can look new; grants to individuals are left out. Methodology.
Giving History
Giving Over Time
Total grant dollars and number of grants per year
From 2020 to 2025, annual grant giving ranged from $80K (2022) to $735K (2021). In 2025 it made 18 grants totaling $428K.
Grants by year
Grant recipients and amounts by year
| Recipient | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Actors' Gang Inc Culver City, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| City Hearts Kids Say Yes to the Arts Harbor City, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| East West Players Inc Los Angeles, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Elemental Music Santa Monica, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center Los Angeles, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Grand Vision Foundation San Pedro, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Inner-City Arts Los Angeles, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| PS Arts Los Angeles, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
| Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Culver City, CA | ARTS | $30,000 |
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Financial History
Multi-year comparison from IRS filings
| Filing year | Total Assets | Revenue | Expenses | Grants paid | Grants | Net Investment Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $4,442,814 | $101,609 | $468,062 | $427,500 | 18 | $101,609 |
| 2024 | $4,504,746 | $117,474 | $366,047 | $330,000 | 17 | $117,474 |
| 2023 | $4,539,682 | $31,188 | $415,708 | $380,000 | 17 | $31,188 |
| 2022 | $4,630,815 | $712,198 | $120,866 | $80,000 | 17 | $712,198 |
| 2021 | $5,676,486 | $518,015 | $770,539 | $735,000 | 21 | $518,015 |
| 2020 | $4,943,780 | $240,505 | $420,390 | $385,500 | 23 | $240,505 |
Research compiled by Grantable AI from public sources. Last updated October 2026.
Mission & Focus Areas
In its 2024 filing, the foundation states that its mission is to provide charitable benefits for charitable, educational, scientific, literary, and religious purposes. Its website describes its grant focus as Los Angeles County arts-education programs for children in kindergarten through eighth grade, including dance, instrumental and vocal music, visual arts, and dramatic arts. The website says awards can be up to $60,000 over two years for programs intended to improve participants’ artistic or academic skills, or their attitudes or behaviors toward school.
The website lists eligibility requirements of serving disadvantaged K–8 students in Los Angeles County and being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It also expresses preferences for programs with meaningful, measurable results and for organizations where professional artists lead programming and instruction.
The foundation’s 2025 grants illustrate support for varied arts and arts-education organizations. For example, grantee Symphonic Jazz Orchestra describes its work as commissioning and performing symphonic jazz and educating underserved people through school residencies and community outreach. Young Storytellers says it develops literacy through storytelling and performance opportunities for underserved public-school children. Inner-City Arts describes using arts education to support creativity, learning, and problem-solving among underserved children.
Grantmaking
In filing year 2025, the foundation gave $427,500 through 18 grants. Grant amounts ranged from $5,000 to $30,000, with a median grant of $30,000. The foundation’s largest listed 2025 grants included:
The website says the preliminary Letter of Interest process is open to all, while full applications are by invitation only. It reports that the foundation changed from an open application process to an invitation-only process in FY2010. For the 2026 grant cycle, the website says awards are for eligible Los Angeles County arts-education programs serving K–8 students.
Leadership & Key People
Leadership team and compensation from IRS filings
The 2025 filing lists Brenda Roberts as president/chair, Shari Leinwand as chief financial officer, Carol Bradford as secretary, Olivia Mitchell and Maria Garcia as board members, and Gary Ruttenberg as president emeritus.
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation is led by Brenda Roberts, President & Chair since 2023 (on filings since 2020); none of the 6 officers listed in 2025 report compensation.
Officers on the 2025 filing
Brenda Roberts
President & Chair
Board Member → President & Chair, 2023
On filings since 2020
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Gary Ruttenberg
President Emeritus
Board Chair & Chairman → President Emeritus, 2023
On filings since 2020
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Olivia Mitchell
Board Member
On filings since 2020
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Shari Leinwand
Chief Financial Officer
Treasurer → Chief Financial Officer, 2023
On filings since 2020
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Carol Bradford
Secretary
On filings since 2023
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Maria Garcia
Board Member
On filings since 2023
0.5 hrs/week
No compensation reported
Former officers (2)
- Former: Anabel Giron (2020–2022) — Board Member
- Former: Rosalind Wyman (2020–2022) — Board Member
Data from IRS Form 990 filings, 2020–2025. "On filings since" is the earliest filing we hold that lists the person; hours are average hours per week as reported.
Frequently asked questions about Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation
How much does Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation give each year?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation gave $428K across 18 grants in 2025, according to its 2025 IRS Form 990. In 2024 it gave $330K across 17 grants.
What is Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's typical grant size?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's median grant in 2025 was $30,000, and its average grant was $23,750, across 18 grants on its 2025 IRS Form 990. Organizations receiving their first grant from Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation that year got $27K on average.
Where does Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation give grants?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation gives mostly in California: 100% of the grant dollars itemized on its 2025 IRS Form 990 went to recipients there. The most frequent recipient cities were Los Angeles, CA (10 grants), Culver City, CA (3 grants) and Santa Monica, CA (2 grants).
Does Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation give general operating support?
Not in 2025: none of the 18 grants with a stated purpose on Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's 2025 IRS Form 990 were described as general or operating support. Recurring purposes include "Arts" (17 grants).
Who are Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's largest grantees?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's largest 2025 grantees include Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center ($50,000 across 2 grants), Actors' Gang Inc ($40,000 across 2 grants) and City Hearts Kids Say Yes to the Arts ($40,000 across 2 grants), according to its 2025 IRS Form 990. Together they received 30% of its itemized 2025 grant dollars.
How large is Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation reported $4.4M in total assets on its 2025 IRS Form 990. Its revenue that year was $102K.
What does Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation fund?
In its 2024 filing, the foundation states that its mission is to provide charitable benefits for charitable, educational, scientific, literary, and religious purposes. See mission & focus areas ↑
How do I apply for a grant from Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation?
The website accepts preliminary Letters of Interest from all organizations; full applications are by invitation only. Eligibility and process details are in the grantmaking section of this profile. See how to apply ↑
What is Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's EIN?
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's EIN (Employer Identification Number) is 95-4499843. IRS Form 990 filing data is available on this page for 2020–2025.
Data last updated October 2026. Sourced from IRS Form 990 filings. Research dossier generated October 2026.
Data update history
(5)
When this profile's IRS filing data changed on Grantable
- Updated Form 990 for fiscal year 2020 (received by the IRS May 3, 2021)
- Updated Form 990 for fiscal year 2021 (received by the IRS April 26, 2022)
- Updated Form 990 for fiscal year 2022 (received by the IRS May 10, 2023)
- Added Form 990 for fiscal year 2025 (received by the IRS May 8, 2026)
- IRS filings on file for fiscal years 2020–2024
Explore Open Grants
Browse active grant opportunities in Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's focus areas in our free grants database
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Cite this profile
Grantable. (2026). Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation funder profile. GrantGraph. Retrieved October 11, 2026, from https://grantable.co/funders/thelma-pearl-howard-foundation-morg_69b05b4bdf14466fa07ca0f9b33f9d68
BibTeX
@misc{grantable_954499843_2026,
author = {{Grantable}},
title = {{Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation funder profile}},
howpublished = {GrantGraph},
year = {2026},
url = {https://grantable.co/funders/thelma-pearl-howard-foundation-morg_69b05b4bdf14466fa07ca0f9b33f9d68},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-11. Data licensed CC BY 4.0}
}The figures on this page are open data under CC BY 4.0: reuse them with credit to Grantable and a link. Download the data.
Figures come from Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation's IRS filings (methodology). AI-written summaries, news items and logos are not covered by the open licence. Spot an error? Email hello@grantable.co.
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