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Georgia · Nonprofit

ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC

ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Georgia) receives grants from 188 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,000,610 to it, the largest being THE GOIZUETA FOUNDATION INC ($8,950,000). 122 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$31M
Funders on record
188
Grants received
$35M
Net assets
$219M
122/188 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 52%
01What it does

What Atlanta Historical Society Inc does

Mission

Atlanta history center seeks to connect people, history, and culture to build a stronger community. Through exhibitions, collections, historic houses, gardens, archives, educational school tours, public programs, and digital and virtual programs and content, we encourage our constituents to consider our shared past in a dynamic context, providing opportunities for broader perspective. Atlanta history center-buckhead is comprised of the atlanta history museum, which is one of the largest history museums in the country and features signature, temporary, and traveling exhibitions; goizueta gardens including 33 acres of curated gardens, woodlands, and trails; three historic houses and associated buildings: swan house, smith farm, and wood cabin; and kenan research center. Atlanta history center-midtown includes margaret mitchell house, which contains the apartment where margaret mitchell wrote gone with the wind, along with exhibition galleries; and commercial row, which contains a tempora

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Atlanta History Center consists of a 33-acre campus in Buckhead that includes the Atlanta History Museum, Goizueta Gardens, Kenan Research Center, and three historic houses, and Atlanta History Center-Midtown, which includes the Margaret Mitchell House, exhibition space, and event space. Atlanta History Museum is one of the largest history museums in the country. Through signature, temporary, and traveling exhibitions, visitors can explore the history of Atlanta and the southeast from the land's original inhabitants until the present day. The museum also includes the fully-restored The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting in the multimedia experience Cyclorama: The Big Picture. All exhibitions and digital content are supported by the museum collections. The museum artifact collections are particularly strong in American Civil War and Reconstruction, Atlanta businesses and home life, period furniture and decorative arts, and a significant collection of fashion and textiles. The living collections of the Atlanta History Center are presented throughout Goizueta Gardens, containing 9 distinct thematic gardens: Gilbert Quarry Garden, Smith Farm gardens, Swan House Garden, Swan Woods,…

    $11,128,834 spent$1,376,602 earned by the program
    70% of program spending
  2. Atlanta History Center produces a rich array of interactive, dynamic programs and exhibitions. Community Days, such as Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, activate our entire 33-acre campus with museum theatre performances, educational simulations, guest lectures, historical crafting demonstrations, and opportunities for children and adults to experience history firsthand, while also including digital and virtual components. Atlanta History Center also hosts a Fulton County University of Georgia 4-H Extension Office and the StoryCorps Atlanta recording studio through onsite partnerships, which allows those institutions to further their complementary missions and increase awareness of Atlanta History Center and our mission Our school tours take schoolchildren through interactive experiences to help them learn about civil rights, the Civil War, Native Americans, and Georgia farm life, while school outreach programs and Travel Trunks take history out into the classroom through presentations and activities. School programs are also offered virtually. School programming served over 44,000 children this year. Toddler programs, summer camps, and Homeschool Days bring engaging,…

    $4,699,843 spent$325,579 earned by the program
    30% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,828,677.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($11M) Expenses 100 ($12M) Net assets 100 ($146M)2018 Revenue 169 ($19M) Expenses 105 ($13M) Net assets 105 ($153M)2019 Revenue 131 ($15M) Expenses 120 ($15M) Net assets 104 ($152M)2020 Revenue 114 ($13M) Expenses 122 ($15M) Net assets 100 ($146M)2021 Revenue 297 ($34M) Expenses 116 ($14M) Net assets 126 ($184M)2022 Revenue 199 ($23M) Expenses 127 ($15M) Net assets 112 ($163M)2023 Revenue 164 ($19M) Expenses 152 ($18M) Net assets 117 ($170M)2024 Revenue 379 ($43M) Expenses 159 ($19M) Net assets 138 ($201M)2025 Revenue 275 ($31M) Expenses 174 ($21M) Net assets 150 ($219M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (275)Expenses (174)Net assets (150)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $149M to $187M (+26%).

$151M
$156M
$154M
$149M
$187M
$166M
$173M
$204M
$222M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 9% · 2021 3% · 2022 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

60% of ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 810 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$812k
’17
$6.3M
’18
$326k
’19
−$1.9M
’20
$20M
’21
$7.2M
’22
$199k
’23
$24M
’24
$10M
’25
18
months of
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.

Chief executive

Frank Hale

President/CEO

Board chair

Joia Johnson

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed343331252228243028
Joined·+5+5+1+3+7+8+6+5
No longer listed·677611207
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 47 funders to 82 funders, grant income rose $506k → $5.2M.

13 of 188 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $18M from 9 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Robert W Woodruff Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC raised.

From the IRS filings of ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 188 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

ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

26%
largest funder
49%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 21% · 2019 27% · 2020 49% · 2021 17% · 2022 12% · 2023 50% — growing more concentrated.

“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

45% of ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

90% of ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC's grant income comes from Georgia funders.

WA
IL
MI
NY
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
MO
DE
TN
NC
SC
DC
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Georgia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin32% · top quartile
Months of reserve18.3mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)13% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.2M on record.

Federal$1.2M
grants $1.2Mcontracts $0
20
21
23
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$544k
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$495k
  • National Archives and Records Administration$138k

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 ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC

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 Georgia

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 20%Fundraising 5%

Governance

20
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

55%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

GA

Part of a family of 7 related entities

  • Mmhahs LLC · disregarded
  • made by us llc · disregarded
  • Thorton-Venable Charitable Trust · corp_trust
  • Pt Schutze Endowment Fund · corp_trust
  • Lucy Rucker Aiken Fund · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: 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.

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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 ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Georgia) receives grants from 188 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,000,610 to it, the largest being THE GOIZUETA FOUNDATION INC ($8,950,000). 122 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC have?
IRS filings report 188 organizations giving $35,000,610 in grants to ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC, 122 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
THE GOIZUETA FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $8,950,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ATLANTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 Atlanta Historical Society →

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 188 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