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20th Century Electric Railway Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

20th Century Electric Railway Foundation

Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$660k
Granted FY2020
6
Grants FY2020
5
States reached
$500k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.

Arts & Culture$2.8MHuman Services$350
02FY2020 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $55k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
  • $250k+1 grant · $500k
$50,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM$500,000
SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM$50,000
NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HIST S$50,000
MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM$30,000
CONNECTICUT TROLLEY MUSEUM$25,000
SAN DIEGO ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSN INC$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 81% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM: $30k → 11%PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM: $525k → 12%MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION: $350 → 11%ORANGE EMPIRE RAILWAY MUSEUM: $8k → 11%ROCKHILL TROLLEY MUSEUM: $35k → 17%OREGON ELECTRIC RAILWAY MUSEUM: $12k → 14%CONNECTICUT TROLLEY MUSEUM: $25k → 11%BRANFORD ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATI: $13k → 12%NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM: $216k → 7%YAKIMA ELECTRIC RAILWAY MUSEUM: $5k → 17%ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM: $250k → 6%NATIONAL CAPITAL TROLLEY MUSEUM: $10k → 8%BALTIMORE STREETCAR MUSEUM: $30k → 19%SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM: $307k → 9%MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM: $25k → 11%PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM: $500k → 12%SAN DIEGO ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSN INC: $5k → 11%FORT SMITH TROLLEY MUSEUM: $30k → 17%NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM: $15k → 7%SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM: $95k → 9%MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM: $10k → 11%PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM: $250k → 12%FORT SMITH TROLLEY MUSEUM: $19k → 17%SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM: $75k → 9%NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HIST S: $50k → 9%SEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM: $50k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
WA
MN
IL
OR
OH
PA
CT
CA
CO
MD
AZ
AR
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.3M · 7 repeat orgs$522k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +56% since the first grant, against -39% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2020, 4 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
10

Total granted

$2.3M
$442k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+56%
-39%

Still filing today

71%
30%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $80k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • NO
    NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM
    2× · 2017–2018 · $231k · revenue +352%
  • OP
    OLD PUEBLO TROLLEY
    2× · 2018–2019 · $101k · revenue +197%
  • MS
    MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM
    3× · 2017–2020 · $65k · revenue +56%

Funded once

  • IR
    ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM INC
    one grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +21%
  • FC
    FORT COLLINS RAILWAY MUSEUM
    one grant, 2019 · $80k
  • RT
    ROCKHILL TROLLEY MUSEUM
    one grant, 2019 · $35k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Bricktown Model Railroaders Association

Provide a museum of local railroads

Arts & Culture
2
Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association Inc

The Museums mission is the collection, preservation,restoration and operation of vintage railroad equipment at its own facility and on the historic SD&A Railway for the education.

Arts & Culture
3
Lake Superior Railroad Musuem

Educate the public on the operations of a railroad and its equipment.

Arts & Culture
4
Motor Transport Museum

Motor Transport Museum collects and preserves trucks, vehicles, machinery and parts for viewing by the general public.

—
5
Arizona Railway Museum

Acquisition preservation and Restoration of Railroad Artifacts Showing the History of Arizona

—
6
Electric City Trolley Museum Association

Electric City Trolley Museum Association is a non-profit, tax exempt membership organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration and interpretation of the social and economic developmental role of Electric Railways. As an all…

—
7
The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Southern Ca Chapter

Encouragement of the interest in railway history, the preservation of railway artifacts and equipment, documents and records, and to enable members to study railroad operations.

—
8
Lake Shore Railway Historical Society Inc

Maintaining the Lake Shore Railway Museum and all exhibits

—
9
WesternMD Railway Historical Society

To encourage the collection & preservation of historical material associated with the Western MD Railway and American Railway system.

—
10
The Staley Museum
Philanthropy
11
Connecticut Electric Railway Association Incorporated

We are a trolley museum. we provide an historically accurate educational experience of the trolley era through interpretation, preservation, restoration and operation of an electric railway.

Arts & Culture
12
Oyster Bay Railroad Museum

The mission of the organization is to preserve and communicate to the general public the historical experience of long island's rail transportation history through means of historic artifacts and buildings, either in working or static…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Inc; the most unlike its peers is Old Pueblo Trolley. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 20 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
5/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM INC: $1,275,000 · OtherPENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM INCSEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUM: $526,500 · OtherSEASHORE TROLLEY MUSEUMNORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM: $231,000 · OtherNORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUMOLD PUEBLO TROLLEY: $101,075 · Other+12 more: $318,699 · Other+12 moreILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM INC: $250,000 · Arts & CultureILLINOIS RAILW…MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM: $65,000 · Arts & CultureMINNESOTA STRE…BALTIMORE STEETCAR MUSEUM INC: $30,000 · Arts & CultureBALTIMORE STEE…BRANFORD ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOC INC: $12,500 · Arts & Culture
Other$2,452,274Arts & Culture$357,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM INC: $1,275,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM INC: $250,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetRAILWAYS TO YESTERDAY INC: $40,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetBALTIMORE STEETCAR MUSEUM INC: $30,000 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetBRANFORD ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOC INC: $12,500 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetSAN DIEGO ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION dba NATIONAL CITY DEPOT: $5,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds PENNSYLVANIA TROLLEY MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds OLD PUEBLO TROLLEY ↗
  • Who funds MINNESOTA STREETCAR MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds RAILWAYS TO YESTERDAY INC ↗
  • Who funds BALTIMORE STEETCAR MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds BRANFORD ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOC INC ↗
  • Who funds SAN DIEGO ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION dba NATIONAL CITY DEPOT ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA3.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2023
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Branford Electric Railway Assoc Inc: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation?

Find your warmest path to 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 20 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home