Grants for natural history museums

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

88 natural history and sciences museums received at least $844,905 in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 477 grants made from 426 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 426 foundations, 91% made just a single grant to nature museums, and 0% made grants to four or more nature museums. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$844,905

Total grant dollars given to natural history museums

477

Number of grants made annually to natural history museums

426

Number of grantmakers funding natural history museums

$1,000

Median grant size to natural history museums

Foundations that support natural history and sciences museums

Out of all grants made to natural history museums, 82% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 7% of the dollar-value of grants to nature museums. Foundations funding nature museums also made grants to universities, art museums, history museums, historical societies, and land conservation groups.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	353
Medium	40
Large	33

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	7
Private	381
Corporate	25
Other	13

Grants made

Grants made to nature museums	Number of grantmakers
1	390
2-3	33
4-10	3
11+	0

Top 10 foundations supporting natural history and sciences museums

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to nature museums	Number of grants made to nature museums	Median grant size
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	9	$550
Greater Worcester Community Foundation	MA	Metro	0.1%	4	$1,500
Baird Foundation	WI	National	0.1%	4	$1,250
Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh	PA	Metro	6.3%	3	$2,500
Ruth H and Warren A Ellsworth Foundation	MA	Metro	0.9%	3	$2,500
The Rhode Island Foundation	RI	Metro	0.0%	3	$413
Gannett Foundation	VA	National	0.0%	3	$99
The W Foundation (TWF)	CA	State	0.2%	2	$3,750
Priscilla and Michael Baldwin Foundation	HI	Metro	1.0%	2	$3,206
The Bokom Foundation	OH	State	9.9%	2	$2,750

See all grantmaking to natural history museums

Natural history and sciences museums grantees

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

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	477
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	0

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$500
$100k-$500k	$550
$500k-$1M	$1,500
$1M-$5M	$1,000
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	113
California	77
Illinois	49
Wisconsin	31
Other	207

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	92
San Francisco	49
Chicago	49
Milwaukee	31
Other	221

Top 25 grants made to natural history museums

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Marysville Museum and Gallery	$5,000	Charitable Donation	Liatis Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	For General Support.	Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh	$5,000	Hodge Internship	Emma Clyde Hodge Memorial Fund
Bishop Museum of Science and Nature	$5,000	General Support	Vernon G and Sandra JC Buchanan Family Foundation
National Day of Prayer Task Force	$5,000	Gift for Ndop Broadcast	Pulse Outreach
Cleveland Museum of Natural History	$5,000	Non Restricted Operating	Lincoln Electric Foundation PFDN 20-1205380
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	P4P Spring Into Action(p4psia)	Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Kingman Museum	$5,000	Public Museum	The Grace and John T Harrington Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	General Charitable Purposes	Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund
American Museum of Natural History	$5,000	General	Brian P Friedman Family Foundation
The Wild Center	$5,000	Unrestricted	Steven M and Joyce E Tadler Charitable Trust
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	Science Action Club Support	Broadcom Foundation
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem	$5,000	Charitable	Rudin Management Company
The Wild Center	$5,000	General Charitable	Cloudsplitter Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	Charitable Contribution To Support Charity's Mission To Explore, Explain, and Sustain Life on Earth	Thelma Doelger Charitable Trust
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	Donation for Charitable Purposes	Coit Family Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	2019 Big Bang Galapagos Crowdfunding	Siebel Family Charitable Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	Unrestricted Donation	Mirnahill Foundation
New Bedford Whaling Museum	$5,000	Support for Current Programs	The Croll Foundation
California Academy of Sciences	$5,000	Unrestricted Operating Support	Case Western Reserve University
Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM)	$5,000	Education	Charles and Marcia Larsenanthony and Priscilla Beadell Foundation
Sequoia Parks Conservancy (SNHA)	$5,000	Education and Outreach Program	The Staggs Family Foundation
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh	$5,000	Collaborative Program Support	Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC)
Field Museum of Natural History	$5,000	Unrestricted Charitable Gift	James and Catherine Denny Foundation
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum	$5,000	Support for Discretion of	Van Strum Foundation 8833023

See all grants to natural 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 "Natural history museums" category for this page is determined by the "A56: Natural History, Natural Science Museums" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.