Grants for history museums

Name: Top 25 grants made to history museums
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

1,410 history museums received at least $142.7 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 2,781 grants made from 1,990 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 1,990 foundations, 82% made just a single grant to history museums, and 3% made grants to four or more history museums. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$142,732,562

Total grant dollars given to history museums

2,781

Number of grants made annually to history museums

1,990

Number of grantmakers funding history museums

$1,000

Median grant size to history museums

Foundations that support history museums

Out of all grants made to history museums, 82% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 94% of the dollar-value of grants to history museums. Foundations funding history museums also made grants to art museums, historical societies, colleges, universities, and multiservice human service organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,639
Medium	192
Large	159

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	44
Private	1,782
Corporate	71
Other	93

Grants made

Grants made to history museums	Number of grantmakers
1	1,641
2-3	280
4-10	57
11+	12

Top 10 foundations supporting history museums

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to history museums	Number of grants made to history museums	Median grant size
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	40	$1,000
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.1%	36	$1,000
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	29	$240
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.1%	21	$1,000
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.0%	18	$2,000
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.1%	16	$1,382
Arkansas Community Foundation	AR	State	0.1%	15	$2,660
Community Foundation of North Texas (NTXCF)	TX	State	0.1%	14	$750
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.0%	12	$150
Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region	NY	Metro	0.6%	11	$1,241

See all grantmaking to history museums

History museums grantees

History museums with more than $5 million in total revenues received 77% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 36% of all history museums.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	2,769
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	12

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$1,000
$500k-$1M	$1,000
$1M-$5M	$1,000
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	304
California	212
District of Columbia	206
Virginia	197
Other	1,862

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
Washington DC	249
New York City	180
New Orleans	102
Virginia Beach	85
Other	1,832

Top 25 grants made to history museums

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures	$42,905,821	FMV	Academy Foundation
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures	$42,490,621	Sup. of Related Org	Academy Foundation
The Gilcrease Museum Management Trust The University of Tulsa	$10,000,000	Campaign for Gilcrease	A. R. and Marylouise Tandy Foundation
South Boston-Halifax County Museum of Fine Arts and History	$10,000,000	The Acquisition of the Howard Greenberg Collection	Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Charitable Trust
Discovery Park of America	$5,822,474	Education	Robert E and Jenny D Kirkland Foundation
Grammy Museum Foundation	$5,243,964	Contributions and Program Service Support	RECORDING Academy
National Museum of World War II Aviation	$5,120,000	To Promote Further Understanding of American Wwii Aviation	Slattery Family Foundation
Museum of Automotive Icons	$3,600,000	2019 Automobile Collection Restricted Grant	Greater Manhattan Community Foundation
Medal of Honor Museum Foundation	$3,500,000	Architectural	Arlington Tomorrow Foundation
The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education	$3,235,705	General Support	Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
Dallas Holocaust Museum	$3,005,096	Arts, Culture	Southwest Community Foundation (DJCF)
National Mounted Warfare Foundation	$2,800,000	General Fund	The Frank W and Sue Mayborn Foundation
Old Sturbridge Village (OSV)	$5,000	Core Programs	Rockwell Foundation
Montpelier Foundation	$5,000	Unrestricted Giving	Charlottesville Area Community Foundation
Edmonds South Snohomish County Historical Society	$5,000	Edmonds Historical North	Hubbard Family Foundation
Thomas Jefferson Foundation	$5,000	General & Unrestricted	Conroy Family Foundation
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)	$5,000	Never Again: What You Do Matters Campaign	Rhoda and David Chase Family Foundation
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)	$5,000	Unrestricted Purpose	Cheryl Chase and Stuart Bear Family Foundation
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)	$5,000	Unrestricted Purpose	Sandra and Arnold Chase Family Foundation
Cotton Museum	$5,000	Annual Harvest Party	The Turley Foundation
Palo Alto Museum	$5,000	Arts, Culture, and Humanities	Santa Barbara Foundation
Computer History Museum (CHM)	$5,000	General	Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego
Congressional Medal of Honor Society of the United States of America	$5,000	To Provide Appropriate Aid To All Persons To Whom the Medal Has Been Awarded, Their Widows Or Their Children.	The Orchard Farm Foundation
Thomas Jefferson Foundation	$5,000	Education	The Richard and Leslie Gilliam Foundation
The Mark Twain House and Museum	$5,000	To Foster An Appreciation of the Legacy of Mark Twain	Trinity Health of New England Corporation

See all grants to history museums

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "History museums" category for this page is determined by the "A54: History Museums" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.