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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY was founded in 1994 by richard gilder and lewis e.

$195k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$43k
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 2025.

Arts & Culture$945kEducation$317kScience & Tech$25k
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 1 grants below total $43,496, the rows itemized in this filing. The $194,621 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $151,125 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.
$43,496
Median grant
1
States reached
$80M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION$43,496
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 (FY17–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 85% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS (NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL): $15k → 13%PATCHOGUE MEDFORD SCHOOLS: $12k → 7%SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL: $23k → 9%NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL: $23k → 11%ACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $35k → 13%NOTRE DAME SCHOOL: $24k → 17%FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS (ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL): $20k → 20%ALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL: $28k → 28%ANDOVER PUBLIC SCHOOL: $15k → 8%HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 16%MEREWETHER LLC: $25k → 14%AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $80k → 14%WASHINGTON COLLEGE: $25k → 12%SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL: $20k → 9%NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL: $20k → 11%Academy of American Studies: $33k → 13%NOTRE DAME SCHOOL: $24k → 17%Abraham Lincoln High School: $17k → 20%ALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL: $28k → 28%ANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 8%HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 16%AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $41k → 14%SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL: $19k → 9%ACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $29k → 13%NOTRE DAME SCHOOL: $24k → 17%FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS (ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL): $15k → 20%HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $18k → 28%ANDOVER PUBLIC SCHOOL: $15k → 8%WICHITA HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 16%AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $24k → 14%SALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL: $11k → 9%NOTRE DAME SCHOOL: $12k → 17%ALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL: $28k → 28%ANDOVER PUBLIC SCHOOL: $15k → 8%HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 16%FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $27k → 17%HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $18k → 28%ANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 8%HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $15k → 16%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $15k → 17%ALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL: $14k → 28%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $15k → 17%HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $18k → 28%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $15k → 17%MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $37k → 17%MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $37k → 17%MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $19k → 17%MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $19k → 17%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.
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 17% of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Historylessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.1M · 15 repeat orgs$165k to everyone else

15 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
8

Total granted

$1.1M
$165k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+0%
+32%

Still filing today

27%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
Arts & CultureEducationOther
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

  • AL
    AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
    4× · 2018–2021 · $155k · revenue +0%
  • THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION
    4× · 2021–2025 · $147k · revenue +13%
  • MO
    MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
    4× · 2017–2020 · $111k · revenue -39%

Funded once

  • MV
    MOUNT VERNON LADIES ASSOCIATION
    one grant, 2019 · $34k
  • TF
    THE FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $27k · revenue +32%
  • WC
    WASHINGTON COLLEGE
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +21%
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
05the grantee network

6 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. 6 of the 23 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
6/6
Grantees still filing
4/6
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $102,563 · OtherACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIESALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL: $97,500 · OtherALL HALLOWS HIGH SCHOOLNOTRE DAME SCHOOL: $84,520 · OtherNOTRE DAME SCHOOLSALESIAN HIGH SCHOOL: $73,911 · OtherSALESIAN HIGH SCHOOLHEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL: $60,000 · OtherHEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOLHIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES: $54,000 · OtherHIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIESNEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL: $51,398 · OtherNEW DORP HIGH SCHOOLANDOVER PUBLIC SCHOOL: $45,000 · OtherANDOVER PUBLIC SCHOOLFUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS (ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL): $34,880 · OtherMOUNT VERNON LADIES ASSOCIATION: $33,656 · OtherANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL: $29,728 · Other+7 more: $128,397 · Other+7 moreTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION: $147,380 · Arts & CultureTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' AS…MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $111,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW Y…New York Historical Society: $52,500 · Arts & CultureNew York Historical SocietyAMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $155,060 · EducationAMERICAN LIBRAR…WASHINGTON COLLEGE: $25,000 · EducationWASHINGTON COLL…
Other$795,553Arts & Culture$310,880Education$180,060

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

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $155,060 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION: $147,380 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $111,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetNew York Historical Society: $52,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS INC: $26,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWASHINGTON COLLEGE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION ↗
  • Who funds MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
  • Who funds New York Historical Society ↗
  • Who funds THE FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS INC ↗
  • Who funds WASHINGTON COLLEGE ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 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%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Washington College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 23 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

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More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
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The regranting layer
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The endowment market
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The camps
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By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home