The Rockefeller Foundation launched the New York City Cultural Innovation Fund (CIF) in 2007. Since then, it has supported six rounds of annual grantmaking, resulting in 99 grants to 86 nonprofit cultural and community organizations in New York City. Grants across the six years 2007–2012 totaled $16.3 million.
An Evaluation Team headed by Helicon Collaborative assessed the Cultural Innovation Fund for the period December 2012 to May 2013 based on Terms of Reference issued by the Foundation in September 2012.