About Trust for Mutual Understanding
The Trust for Mutual Understanding concentrates funding on international cultural exchange and artist mobility, backing programs that create cross-border artistic collaboration and residencies. Most support is directed to a small number of sizable grants for arts organizations and pooled/umbrella efforts that distribute funds to multiple cultural partners. The foundation favors organizations that facilitate artist residencies, international projects, and cultural diplomacy rather than general social services.
Focus Areas
International cultural exchange and diplomacy (support for cross‑border arts projects)Artist residencies and mobility programs (funding residencies, travel, and placement support)Capacity support for arts organizations that run international programs (pooled/umbrella funding)
Who They Fund
unspecified
Giving Approach
Highly concentrated giving: very few, large grants (including one large pooled/umbrella award) directed to arts organizations and intermediaries that enable international collaboration; emphasis on multi‑beneficiary distribution rather than many small local grants.
Funding Style
general operating support
About Trust for Mutual Understanding
A single $2.64 million general grant to a New York recipient stands out in Trust for Mutual Understanding’s recent giving, alongside repeated support for arts organizations that manage cross-border exchange. The foundation’s work centers on international cultural collaboration and artist mobility, with a clear preference for programs that bring U.S. cultural workers into sustained contact with partners abroad. Recent grants show that pattern through support for residency infrastructure, theater exchange, and organizations that distribute funds across multiple cultural partners. Cec Artslink Inc received several awards, including $388,500 in 2024 and additional support in 2025, while Residency Unlimited Inc also appears as a recurring grantee with awards in both years. The foundation’s grantmaking is not limited to one medium: visual art, theater, dance, and music all appear, often paired with travel, placement, or collaborative project work. Environmental stewardship also enters the portfolio where it intersects with arts and cultural exchange, reflecting a mix of cultural diplomacy and community-rooted collaboration. Most awards are general support, indicating flexibility for the recipient organizations’ own international programs and partnerships.
What Trust for Mutual Understanding Funds
Trust for Mutual Understanding funds a mix of arts, environment, and arts-environment collaboration. In theater, it gave $95,000 in 2024 to Center for International Theatre Development Inc and $90,000 in 2025, signaling continued support for cross-border stage work. In environmental collaboration, The Ocean Foundation received $195,112 in 2024 and $55,555 in 2025, tying the foundation’s arts-and-environment framing to a recurring partner. The portfolio also includes Indigenous and traditional knowledge-linked work: Cultural Survival received $80,000 in 2024, and Mongol Ecology Center received $85,000 in 2024 and $45,000 in 2025. Arts organizations in dance, visual art, and residency support also fit this pattern, with general support used to sustain collaborative programming rather than isolated projects.
How Trust for Mutual Understanding Gives
Typical awards cluster around a median of $30,518, with the 25th percentile at $15,000 and the 75th percentile at $48,750. That spread sits below the largest recent awards, but the foundation also makes repeated, larger general-support grants to the same organizations across years. The recent list shows recurring recipients in 2024 and 2025, which points to ongoing relationships rather than one-off awards. Trust for Mutual Understanding is a regular funder and a non-DAF grantmaker, and the active program listings show that it accepts unsolicited applications for its general grantmaking programs. The recurring general-support structure suggests flexible, organization-level backing for partners running international arts and environment work.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$2.3M
Total Assets
$25.7M
Total Revenue
$3.8M
Total Expenses
$4.3M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $15K and $49K, with a median of $31K.
25th Percentile
$15K
Median
$31K
75th Percentile
$49K
Geographic Reach
National22 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Trust for Mutual Understanding Funds
Top 4 recipient countries by grant volume for Trust for Mutual Understanding.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 123 | $5M | 97.6% |
| 2 | Denmark |
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