Fashion Foundation USA concentrates its giving on the fashion and creative industries, primarily funding awards, seed support, and startup capital for designers and small creative enterprises. The foundation favors one-off prizes that advance careers (ready-to-wear, jewelry, graduate and sustainability awards) and made a large flagship grant to incubate a new umbrella organization (Fashion Trust). Its portfolio signals interest in emerging designer entrepreneurship, creative practice, inclusivity, and sustainable fashion.
Fashion Foundation USA’s largest recent grant funded the start-up of Fashion Trust, a new organization that shares its exempt purpose. That 2025 award of $766,917 sits alongside a pattern of one-off prizes and seed support for designers and creative enterprises. The foundation backs fashion-sector infrastructure as well as individual creative careers, with awards tied to ready-to-wear, jewelry, creativity, inclusivity, graduate talent, and sustainability. In the recent grants list, the recipients are small, named entities and designers rather than large institutions, which points to a grantmaker focused on early-stage support and project-specific outcomes. The portfolio also shows a clear interest in fashion entrepreneurship. Grants have gone to Brooklyn and New York City recipients, including Aisling Knits Inc for a ready-to-wear award and L'enchanteur Ogundant Holding Group for a jewelry award. Other grants support a creativity award, an inclusivity award, a graduate award, and a sustainability award, suggesting that the foundation uses awards as a way to recognize distinct aspects of emerging fashion practice. The legal name is FASHION FOUNDATION USA, and the foundation’s reported leadership is Tania Fares.
Fashion Foundation USA supports several closely related areas within fashion and creative work. In ready-to-wear design, it gave $150,000 to Aisling Knits Inc for a ready-to-wear award. In jewelry design, it awarded $125,000 to L'enchanteur Ogundant Holding Group for a jewelry award. Those two grants show a preference for named awards rather than open-ended operating support. The foundation also funds creative and career-development categories. It gave $75,000 to The 6th Angel LLC Dba Puppets and Puppets for a creativity award, $50,000 to Jacques Agbobly for an inclusivity award, and $50,000 to Papa Oppong Group LLC for a graduate award. A separate $25,000 grant to Elena Velez Industry Inc supported sustainability. Taken together, the grants point to a funder that separates its support by discipline and purpose within the fashion field.
Fashion Foundation USA’s typical grant size is $50,000 at the 25th percentile, $75,000 at the median, and $137,500 at the 75th percentile. The recent list includes both a very large start-up grant and several smaller awards, which indicates a mix of seed funding and targeted prize support. The grants listed here are concentrated in a single recent year, with the 2025 flagship grant followed by 2024 awards. The foundation does not fund individuals, and it does not make program-related investments, so its support is structured as grants rather than PRI activity.
$767K
$0
$913K
$969K
Most grants fall between $50K and $138K, with a median of $75K.
25th Percentile
$50K
Median
$75K
75th Percentile
$138K
About 14% of grants go to recipients in NY.
TANIA FARES
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Concentrated, prize-driven portfolio: a few sizable one-time awards with a dominant flagship grant (major share to Fashion Trust) plus several mid-to-small awards to individual designers and creative ventures rather than recurring multi-year core support.
Notable grantees: Fashion Trust, Aisling Knits Inc, L'Enchanteur Ogundant Holding Group, The 6th Angel LLC dba Puppets and Puppets, Elena Velez Industry Inc
Grants in the recent list went entirely to U.S. recipients. New York is the top state by grant count, with multiple recipients in Brooklyn and New York City. Texas appears through the Houston-based Fashion Trust grant, while Wisconsin appears through a recipient in Colgate. The recipient map is regional, but the recent awards cluster most visibly in New York, especially Brooklyn and New York City.
Its recent grants cover fashion-sector infrastructure, ready-to-wear design, jewelry, creativity, inclusivity, graduate-level talent, and sustainability. The largest recent grant funded the start-up of Fashion Trust, a new organization sharing the foundation’s exempt purpose.
The typical grant size is $50,000 at the 25th percentile, $75,000 at the median, and $137,500 at the 75th percentile. Recent awards range from $25,000 to $150,000, with a much larger $766,917 start-up grant at the top end.
New York is the top state by grant count. Recent awards in the list went to recipients in Brooklyn and New York City, with additional grants to Houston and Colgate, Wisconsin.
No. The foundation is marked as not funding individuals, and the recent grants list shows awards to companies and organizations such as Aisling Knits Inc, L'enchanteur Ogundant Holding Group, and Fashion Trust.
It made a $25,000 sustainability award to Elena Velez Industry Inc. Sustainability appears alongside the foundation’s other category-based awards, including ready-to-wear, jewelry, creativity, inclusivity, and graduate support.
2025
Source: IRS Form 990-PF, fiscal year 2025.
Most recent grants reported to the IRS.
| Recipient | Location | Amount | Year | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FASHION TRUST | HOUSTON, TX | $766,917 | 2025 | FUNDED START-UP OF NEW ORGANIZATION SHARING THE EXEMPT PURPOSE OF FASHION FOUNDATION USA |
| AISLING KNITS INC | BROOKLYN, NY | $150,000 | 2024 | READY-TO-WEAR AWARD |
| L'ENCHANTEUR OGUNDANT HOLDING GROUP | BROOKLYN, NY | $125,000 | 2024 | JEWELRY AWARD |
| THE 6TH ANGEL LLC DBA PUPPETS AND PUPPETS | NEW YORK CITY, NY | $75,000 | 2024 | CREATIVITY AWARD |
| PAPA OPPONG GROUP LLC | NEW YORK CITY, NY | $50,000 | 2024 | GRADUATE AWARD |
| JACQUES AGBOBLY | BROOKLYN, NY | $50,000 | 2024 | INCLUSIVITY AWARD |
| ELENA VELEZ INDUSTRY INC | COLGATE, WI | $25,000 | 2024 | SUSTAINABILITY AWARD |
FUNDED START-UP OF NEW ORGANIZATION SHARING THE EXEMPT PURPOSE OF FASHION FOUNDATION USA
AISLING KNITS INC
$150,000READY-TO-WEAR AWARD
L'ENCHANTEUR OGUNDANT HOLDING GROUP
$125,000JEWELRY AWARD
THE 6TH ANGEL LLC DBA PUPPETS AND PUPPETS
$75,000CREATIVITY AWARD
PAPA OPPONG GROUP LLC
$50,000GRADUATE AWARD
JACQUES AGBOBLY
$50,000INCLUSIVITY AWARD
ELENA VELEZ INDUSTRY INC
$25,000SUSTAINABILITY AWARD