Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
American Battlefield Trust
American Battlefield Trust (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 223 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,752,656 to it, the largest being HTR FOUNDATION INC ($6,230,750). 148 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $58M
- Funders on record
- 223
- Grants received
- $26M
- Net assets
- $235M
What American Battlefield Trust does
Mission
The American Battlefield Trust preserves America's hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters. The purpose of the American Battlefield Trust is to inspire appreciation of America, its history, and its promise of liberty through an understanding of the wars fought on its soil, and of the sacrifices of earlier generations of Americans.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land Preservation: Through acquisitions and grants, the American Battlefield Trust completed 37 individual transactions, protecting a total of 983.4 acres at 27 battlefields in 9 states during the fiscal year. This includes Antietam, MD; Bentonville, NC; Brandy Station, VA; Breakthrough, VA; Champion Hill, MS; Chattanooga, TN; Chickasaw Bayou, MS; Cold Harbor, VA; Corinth, MS; Deep Bottom II, VA; Fort Blakely, AL; Franklin, TN; Fredericksburg, VA; Gettysburg, PA; Glendale, VA; Goldsborough Bridge, NC; Nashville/Fort Negley, TN; Kernstown, VA; Malvern Hill, VA; Manassas, VA; Munfordville, KY; New Market, VA; New Market Heights, VA; Shiloh, TN; Stones River, TN; Newtown, NY; and Sackets Harbor, NY.
$28,435,562 spentof which $3,300,014 as grants$450,380 earned by the program78% of program spendingMembership: The American Battlefield Trust is a membership-based organization with approximately 46,500 active members from all 50 states, and more than a dozen territories and other nations. Each quarter, every member receives our 48-page magazine, Hallowed Ground, as a free educational membership benefit. The magazine highlights how their direct support helps preserve endangered Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefield land, advances the cause of education about this key period in our Nation's history, and educates them directly on historical elements of importance about the Nation's first 100 years, and land preservation. The Trust relies on its members and supporters to help fulfill its battlefield preservation and education missions each year through their contributions, as well as additional charitable gifts. The Trust also has a major donor society, as a subset of its overall membership, called the Color Bearers, comprised of those members who make membership payments of $1,000 or more annually. Total membership in this group was approximately 1,700 members at the end of the fiscal year. The Trust also recognizes those nearly 1,700 members who have also made a planned…
$4,468,026 spent12% of program spendingEducation: This fiscal year, the Education Department held its 24th Annual National Teacher Institute and fifth annual Virtual Teacher Institute and registered some 1,240 educators from more than 45 states for these professional development experiences, offered free of charge. The Education Department expanded its many video offerings with more than 180 new videos, including our award-winning Step Into History and Animated Maps series. Our Field Trip Fund serviced more than 12,000 students and chaperones, while our Civil War and Revolutionary War Traveling Trunks engaged with more than 29,000 students across the United States. Department staff and contractors also installed new battlefield signage, produced more than 200 new web articles and launched new lessons for teachers.
$3,356,141 spentof which $142,864 as grants$217,470 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $36,259,729.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $223M to $249M (+12%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 24% · 2018 16% · 2019 21% · 2020 9% · 2021 38% · 2022 29% · 2023 30% · 2024 18% · 2025 48%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of American Battlefield Trust’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Dr Mary Abroe
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 56 funders to 106 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $3.7M.
39 of 223 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of American Battlefield Trust’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 223 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
American Battlefield Trust has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
48% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund American Battlefield Trust.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 30% · 2019 26% · 2020 20% · 2021 29% · 2022 27% · 2023 23% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
50% of American Battlefield Trust's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
American Battlefield Trust draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 33 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
American Battlefield Trust runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding American Battlefield Trust receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of the Interior$1.4M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$66k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like American Battlefield Trust
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 34 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Virginia Battlefields I LLC · disregarded
- Americans for Battlefield Preservation · exempt
- Endangered Battlefield Defense Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for American Battlefield Trust: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds American Battlefield Trust?
- American Battlefield Trust (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 223 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,752,656 to it, the largest being HTR FOUNDATION INC ($6,230,750). 148 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does American Battlefield Trust have?
- IRS filings report 223 organizations giving $25,752,656 in grants to American Battlefield Trust, 148 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of American Battlefield Trust?
- HTR FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,230,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like American Battlefield Trust find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 223 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing