Michigan · Nonprofit
ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM
ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM (Michigan) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,364,059 to it, the largest being DUFFY FOUNDATION ($1,195,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum does
Mission
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum creates moments of discovery that inspire curiosity, exploration and respect for stem and the natural world. Together with the leslie science & nature center, we envision a world where curiosity today leads to more purposeful lives tomorrow.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and leslie science & nature center provide unique, inspiring programs and spaces for communities across southeastern michigan to enjoy. We serve over 300,000 annually through our innovative programming, engaging area schools, scouts, community groups and families to explore stem concepts and careers. Through our ann arbor locations and outreach programming, we engage people across 11 counties in southeast michigan as well as throughout the state and nation through our distance learning programs. In addition, we provide robust top-rated virtual programming across the country and even world-wide. The museum operates daily programming both on- and off-site; bringing scientific concepts to life through hands-on experiments. The museum centers accessibility in our programming with scholarships, as well as discounted admissions for underserved communities. Barrier-free access is paramount to our work, and we seek to explore expanding opportunities for all to learn about stem and explore career pathways. The leslie science and nature center provides programming which includes environmental education along with wildlife and science-based programs for children…
$3,425,232 spent$3,086,698 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,425,232.
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 2017 to 2018, from $6.5M to $8.3M (+29%).
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 2% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 7% · 2021 22% · 2022 17% · 2023 2% · 2024 9% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
28% of ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Paige Morrison
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $393k → $410k.
8 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
29% 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 ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 87% · 2019 49% · 2020 40% · 2021 43% · 2022 39% · 2023 43% — 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
42% of ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
68% of ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $837k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $50k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$50k
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 ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM
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 Michigan
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM: 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 ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM?
- ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM (Michigan) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,364,059 to it, the largest being DUFFY FOUNDATION ($1,195,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $4,364,059 in grants to ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM?
- DUFFY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,195,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum →
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 33 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing