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Smithsonian Institution at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Smithsonian Institution

*increase and diffusion of knowledge* is the mission set forth by james smithson.

$20M
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
9
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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 2024.

Education$2.5MArts & Culture$141kScience & Tech$48kInternational$21kEnvironment$11k
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 11 grants below total $608,555, the rows itemized in this filing. The $20,125,960 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $19,517,405 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $63k
  • $50k–250k7 grants · $540k
$63,700
Median grant
9
States reached
$7.9B
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY$100,000
HARVARD COLLEGE$99,117
TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY$86,200
FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY$63,700
JACKSON STATE UNIV$63,700
TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY$63,700
CLARK ATLANTA UNIV$63,700
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY$30,863
FISK UNIVERSITY$20,500
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY$11,975
CHICAGO HISTORIC SOCIETY$5,100
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 76% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%PRES & FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE: $85k → 8%West African Research Association: $21k → 16%Regents of the University of Minnesota: $33k → 11%The Pennsylvania State University: $21k → 16%University of Southern California: $26k → 14%University of California - Santa Barbara: $35k → 14%QUEENS COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $35k → 13%TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: $64k → 16%FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $100k → 19%AUBURN UNIVERSITY: $55k → 15%TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY: $86k → 32%UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS: $55k → 15%University of Wisconsin - Madison: $29k → 10%FISK UNIVERSITY: $21k → 14%CALDWELL COUNTY SCHOOLS: $21k → 16%CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY INC: $64k → 13%University Of Georgia: $35k → 27%Indiana University: $39k → 18%OHIO STATE UNIV RESEARCH FDN: $28k → 15%University Of Illinois: $22k → 19%JACKSON STATE UNIV: $64k → 23%THE WHITNEY INSTITUTE: $21k → 16%ELIZABETH GRACE VEATCH LLC: $60k → 6%University of Maryland at College Park: $48k → 11%Pres & Fellows of Harvard College: $36k → 8%Regents of the University of Minnesotal: $21k → 11%TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: $64k → 16%FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY: $64k → 19%TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY: $74k → 32%FISK UNIVERSITY: $21k → 14%CLARK ATLANTA UNIV: $64k → 13%JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $64k → 23%University of Maryland at College Park: $46k → 11%TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: $32k → 16%FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY: $64k → 19%TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY: $47k → 32%CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY INC: $32k → 13%JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $52k → 23%University of Maryland at College Park: $45k → 11%New York University: $100k → 17%TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: $32k → 16%FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY: $32k → 19%TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY: $24k → 32%CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY INC: $32k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: $43k → 11%FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY: $32k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT COLLEGE PARK: $35k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT COLL: $27k → 11%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

MT
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
IA
IN
OH
PA
CT
CA
UT
WV
VA
MD
AZ
KS
TN
NC
SC
DC
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $5.2M on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 8 regions, $259k to organizations and $4.9M to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Central America and the Caribbean$1.6M · 31% · 160 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$1.3M · 25% · 1 grant · 66 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

South America$1.2M · 22% · 78 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

East Asia and the Pacific$496k · 10% · 31 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

North America (Canada and Mexico)$404k · 8% · 23 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

South Asia$154k · 3% · 9 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

Russia and Neighboring States$47k · 1% · 3 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

Sub-Saharan Africa$38k · 1% · 4 people

Stated purpose: ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT STIPENDS

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

64%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.8M · 17 repeat orgs$1.0M to everyone else

17 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
44

Total granted

$1.8M
$899k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+6%
+13%

Still filing today

41%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $112k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureInternationalRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • TU
    Tuskegee University
    5× · 2017–2025 · $241k · revenue +46%
  • FU
    FISK UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2022–2025 · $56k · revenue +10%
  • BU
    BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2019–2022 · $29k · revenue +6%

Funded once

  • NY
    New York Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +45%
  • EG
    ELIZABETH GRACE VEATCH LLC
    one grant, 2023 · $60k
  • KA
    KANSAS ATHLETICS INC
    one grant, 2023 · $55k
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
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
2
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
3
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
4
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
5
The Central European University

Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. it aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social…

International
6
Washington University

The washington university is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)

Education
7
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
8
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
9
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
10
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
11
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
12
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The George Washington University; the most unlike its peers is Ohio State University Research Foundation. 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

28 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. 28 of the 66 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
27/28
Grantees still filing
21/28
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK: $333,849 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARKTexas Southern University: $191,100 · OtherTexas Southern UniversityFLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY TERM: $191,100 · OtherFLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY TERMJACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $191,100 · OtherJACKSON STATE UNIVERSITYFLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $100,000 · Other+36 more: $929,431 · Other+36 morePresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $478,792 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard CollegeTuskegee University: $241,100 · EducationTuskegee UniversityClark Atlanta University Inc: $191,100 · EducationClark Atlanta University IncNew York University: $100,000 · EducationNew York UniversityFISK UNIVERSITY: $55,500 · Education+10 more: $184,025 · Education+10 moreCHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $21,500 · Arts & CultureAPOLLO THEATER FOUNDATION INC: $21,275 · Arts & CultureTHE WHITNEY INSTITUTE: $20,500 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF THE NC STATE MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES: $12,550 · Arts & CultureTHE AMISTAD RESEARCH CENTER: $10,250 · Arts & CultureSCOTTSDALE MUSEUM OF THE WEST INC: $7,000 · Arts & CultureDubuque County Historical Society: $7,000 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS: $6,000 · Arts & CultureNorthwestern University: $23,600 · Recreation & SportsWEST AFRICAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION: $21,000 · International
Other$1,936,580Education$1,250,517Arts & Culture$106,075Recreation & Sports$23,600International$21,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $478,792 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTuskegee University: $241,100 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetClark Atlanta University Inc: $191,100 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNew York University: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFISK UNIVERSITY: $55,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetQUEENS COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $35,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetYale University: $28,900 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY: $28,810 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $26,460 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $23,600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $21,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetAPOLLO THEATER FOUNDATION INC: $21,275 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetWEST AFRICAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION: $21,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetTHE WHITNEY INSTITUTE: $20,500 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetWEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION: $20,130 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $17,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA INC: $13,250 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE NC STATE MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES: $12,550 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBAYLOR UNIVERSITY: $11,975 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ROBERT W WOODRUFF LIBRARY OF THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CENTER INC: $10,250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE AMISTAD RESEARCH CENTER: $10,250 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetThe George Washington University: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSCOTTSDALE MUSEUM OF THE WEST INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetDubuque County Historical Society: $7,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS: $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds Tuskegee University ↗
  • Who funds Clark Atlanta University Inc ↗
  • Who funds New York University ↗
  • Who funds FISK UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds QUEENS COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds Yale University ↗
  • Who funds BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds APOLLO THEATER FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds WEST AFRICAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds THE WHITNEY INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds Cornell University ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ↗

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.

National Academy of S…North Carolina High S…National Collegiate A…Share Our StrengthTulsa Community Found…Folds of Honor Founda…Foundation for the Ca…Charities Aid Foundat…The Blackbaud Giving …American Endowment Fo…The Bank of America C…National Philanthropi…
National Academy of SciencesDC13.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Academy of Sciences · North Carolina High School Athletic Association Inc · National Collegiate Athletic Association · Share Our Strength · Tulsa Community Foundation · Folds of Honor Foundation · Foundation for the Carolinas · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Smithsonian Institution funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Smithsonian Institution. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • West African Research Association: 13% of income from government
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Bethune-Cookman University: 6% of income from government
  • Historical Association of Southern Florida Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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.

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 66 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Smithsonian Institution’s filings →

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