North Carolina · Nonprofit
ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE
ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE (North Carolina) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $889,086 to it, the largest being THE HEDRICK FAMILY FOUNDATION ($291,714). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $946k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $889k
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Asheville Museum of Science does
Mission
The Asheville Museum of Science (amos) is western north carolina's home for experiential science learning, discovery, and exploration. Amos strives to spark the imagination and foster lifelong curiosity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
During the reporting period, Asheville Museum of Science (amos) advanced its mission to spark imagination and foster lifelong curiosity through high-quality steam programming and interactive exhibit experiences, while responding to the evolving needs of western north carolina communities following hurricane helene. As schools, families, and community systems experienced disruption, amos adapted its programs and spaces to serve as consistent, welcoming, and restorative environments for learning, connection, and recovery.
$732,828 spent86% of program spendingSteam programming: amos delivered hands-on, experiential steam education through field trips, outreach, after-school programs, science camps, workshops, and facilitated experiments. Grounded in learning-through-play and informal instruction, these programs supported both academic growth and social-emotional well-being during a year of recovery. Area educators and families continued to rely on amos for engaging, standards-aligned steam experiences that help close opportunity gaps and increase interest in stem fields. Specifically, amos served: -8500 students through field trips -3500 students through outreach -900 students through after school programs -400 students through science camps
Exhibit exploration and play: amos provided 8,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits and an interactive stem lab, offering families safe, engaging spaces for exploration, play, and reconnection following hurricane helene. Informal facilitation by educators and guest experience staff supported multigenerational learning and meaningful engagement. During the year, amos hosted gifts of the galaxy, a meteorite exhibit that allowed visitors to engage directly with rare pieces of our solar system, and sun, earth, universe, a traveling exhibit designed by nasa exploring the relationship between solar activity, earth systems, and climate. These exhibits resonated strongly with visitors in a post-disaster context, reinforcing themes of science, environment, and resilience. Amos also advanced strategic exhibit improvements by relocating the museum shop to the lobby to increase visibility and introducing new content focused on western north carolina's natural resources, environmental stewardship, and climate consciousness. Planned art-and-science installations, scheduled for completion in 2025, will further strengthen amos's role as a hub for learning, recovery, and long-term community…
Galaxy games: galaxy games exemplifies amos's innovative approach to interdisciplinary learning. Developed through the integrating stem and literature initiative (isli) in partnership with buncombe county schools, the program integrates english language arts and science through problem- based learning. As students build background knowledge in the classroom, amos provides aligned science curriculum and a culminating field trip experience, where students apply their learning by creating an astronomy- themed board game. The program serves third-grade students across buncombe county schools, with a targeted focus on title I schools serving high-need populations (72 -99% of students receiving free or reduced lunch). During the reporting period, galaxy games served 459 students across eight schools, strengthening stem content knowledge, creativity, collaboration, and resilience during a year of recovery.
$115,304 spent14% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $848,132.
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 $2.2M to $2.3M (+5%).
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 35% · 2018 2% · 2019 6% · 2020 26% · 2021 13% · 2022 12% · 2023 13% · 2024 15% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
40% of ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $62k → $84k.
6 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
32% 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 ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 37% · 2019 60% · 2020 51% · 2021 27% · 2022 43% · 2023 47% — 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
27% of ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
93% of ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $276k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 8 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE: 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 ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE?
- ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE (North Carolina) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $889,086 to it, the largest being THE HEDRICK FAMILY FOUNDATION ($291,714). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $889,086 in grants to ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE?
- THE HEDRICK FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $291,714 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Asheville Museum of Science →
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 19 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